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A 21-year-old Talent man will have to put his college hopes on hold after he lost $3,900 in a "secret shopper" scam that sent him a fake check and asked him to wire money to test Western Union's services, police said. "It's pretty clever how they do it," Talent Police Chief Mike Moran said Wednesday, noting he has seen ads around college campuses for mystery shoppers and consumer-service evaluators. "They prey on kids who need money, and there are not a lot of jobs out there," Moran said. Moran said Shyne Christopher contacted the company and received a check for $3,900 and a legitimate-looking letter instructing him to deposit the check, keep $400 for himself and wire the rest to test Western Union's Money-gram service to make sure employees weren't stealing funds. "It sounded real over the phone and the people seemed legitimate," Christopher said. He wired the money and called a phone number for a "coordinator" who was to collect the money and needed the transaction's control number. Although he wired the money to a location in Texas, the phone number was in Montreal, and anyone with the control number could collect the money from any Western Union location, police said. Christopher then learned that the check he had received was fraudulent, and he was liable for the loss from his own account, Moran said. Christopher is hoping that ultimately he will not be left on the hook for nearly $4,000. He is working with police and Western Union to explore possibilities that could absolve him of the debt. "That's a lot of money to pay back," he said. "I was hoping to go to school, but that's been pushed back." Moran said virtually all cases involving people who receive large checks to deposit and then a request to send funds back via a money order are scams. "It seems too good to be true, and it is," Moran said. Reach reporter Chris Conrad at 776-4471; or e-mail [email protected].