NATCHEZ — At least one local resident has received a letter and a check in the mail as part of a secret shopper scam.

A Natchez resident received a letter from Direct Marketing Services in Buffalo, N.Y., saying she’d been chosen to evaluate local merchants.

She was directed first to evaluate a local Western Union, where she should send a payment of $2,500 to Tiffany Scott in New York.

The company included a check for $2,940 to cover the costs. The recipient was directed to deposit the check, then wire the money from her bank account.

The local resident took the check to a bank, where she discovered it was not a valid check.

The check came from a New York company called Multiplan, Inc.

The Mississippi Better Business Bureau warns against such check scams, saying consumers should verify through their own bank that the money has cleared before believing that any such mailed check is real.