Las Vegas woman loses $3,450 to secret shopper scam via fraudulent check deposit in Chase bank account

Summary

A Las Vegas woman lost thousands of dollars in a secret shopper scam that appeared legitimate. Nicole Kohke received a job offer from a company called Tri Construction Solutions, LLC, promising payment after completing a task. The company mailed her a $3,450 check, which she deposited into her Chase bank account. She was instructed to purchase six $250 Sephora gift cards as part of the task. After the check initially cleared, her bank later flagged the transaction as fraudulent and reversed the deposit, leaving her account overdrawn by more than $3,000. Kohke has reported the scam to the FBI, IC3, and local authorities but has not recovered the lost funds.