You're either a very fine employee or a great customer of a local retail chain, the letter says. It doesn't matter which, because either one's getting you the reward of easy money and a fun part-time job as a shadow shopper. All you have to do is deposit the enclosed check for $1,950, wire $1,500 of it to a designated address, then shop away, buying the item of your choice — which you get to keep, along with extra money.

Oh, happy, lucky, glorious day, or — once the scam you've just gone for falls apart — oh, crappy, yucky, inglorious day as you try to straighten it out.

Scammers are again working some old favorites in Utah and beyond. And you deposit the unexpected windfall at great peril, said Kevin Olsen, director of Utah's Division of Consumer Protection.

There are variations, from the shadow shopper scam to variations on sweepstakes and lotteries. The clue you're being conned is a check that you're to deposit and instructions to take some of the money — or your own money while you wait for their money — and send it somewhere else. And if there's an instruction to "wire" money somewhere, said Olsen, "that should have bells and whistles everywhere, screaming 'don't do it.' "

Olsen said officials are seeing lots of variations, including one that pops up when you advertise something you want to sell and an "interested" individual sends you too much money. Point it out, and they tell you to send the overpayment along with the item. They don't actually want the item. They want the overpayment. And by the way, the check they sent you is bogus.

Olsen said it can be months after a check "clears" that you learn it was fraudulent. And you're on the hook for the money.

If you play, you're apt to be out the initial amount you thought you deposited, because the bank will eventually ask for it back; the other amount you cheerfully wired somewhere; your time and quite possibly your good credit name.

The checks look real — and often, they are based on real accounts and companies. Olsen said forgeries of real checks are not uncommon — and it may take some time for the thing to fall apart as a forgery. However long it takes, the unwitting consumer has placed himself at risk, he said.

Yet another scam is a work-at-home fraud. You may be sent money and asked to issue checks to others on their behalf. The possibilities are endless. And scammers, Olsen noted, are good at exploring every one that occurs to them.

"It's a worn-out statement," he said, "but it fits: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

E-mail: lois@desnews.com