(WSB Radio) -- Joanne Napier fell victim to a fraud involving a paid shopping scam. Napier had previously worked as a paid shopper and was paid for her work so she had a good impression of the business. "My first thought was...it sounds good because I've done paid surveys before for legitimate companies and they pretty asked me if I wanted to be referred for other paid surveys and I said yes. When I received this in the mail, I assumed it was something that was referred by them."

Napier received a check for $4875.00 and was told she would pocket $881.00 of it for making purchases and wiring money. She made purchases at Burger King and Home Depot and wired $2000 via Western Union and $1500 via MoneyGram, both to a person in Canada.

Napier says, "Come Tuesday night, I went to use my debit card at a gas station. It was declined and my personal account is overdrawn by $3500 and some change because the check came back."

In hindsight, Napier says there were several things she should have done. They include checking with the Better Business Bureau. That's something she did. The search turned up nothing which should have been a red flag. She also says she could have done a map search on the address which later revealed no such business existed at the address given on the solicitation.

The Federal Trade Commission recommends visiting Mystery Shopping Providers Association for information on the business, a list of member companies and a database of available jobs.

The scam which uses the check float to defraud people is part of a group of Nigerian based scams which are called 419 frauds. The "419" reference is to a part of the Nigerian Criminal Code which the frauds violate. The FTC says this type of fraud has risen to epidemic proportions.