The e-mail read "Secret Shopper Needed," but one Winters couple didn't fall for the phony company and its fraudulent check.

Al and Louise Torres say they will travel to the Vacaville Police Department today to file a report about yet another Internet scam.

"I know there's people falling for this," Al Torres said. "Poor guys are going to get burned."

The e-mail signed "Frank Miller an evaluator consultant of the Miller Survey" didn't seem shady to the couple at first. After all, their daughter had been an employee of a legitimate secret shopper business.

Their thinking changed, however, after they received a cashier's check for $2,980 in a FedEx envelope, followed by another e-mail insisting its urgency.

"You have to start your evaluation process immediately today since the payment has been delivered to your front door. ... I want you to cash the cashiers check immediately today in your bank to go ahead with the evaluations. You are given at least 24 to 72 hours to get the evaluation done."

The e-mail explained that they could keep $150, use $40 for purchasing merchandise and $30 was to compensate for transportation expenses.

The remaining $2,760 was to be used for a Western Union transaction to evaluate their services, the e-mail stated.

Louise Torres said she took one look at it and was skeptical.

Suspecting that the check wasn't valid, they went to the First Northern Bank in Winters, where an employee contacted Option 1 Credit

Union, the logo on the check, and verified that it, indeed, was a fraud.

"There is probably a lot of people who would fall for this and will get stuck with this," she said.

Sgt. Charlie Spruill said that the scam that tried to entice the Torres family isn't very common, but that most Internet or phone scams are targeted to the elderly and involve transferring money overseas through Western Union -- a relatively unregulated entity.

Spruill said he has even received scams on his work cell phone claiming that he won a game of Bingo or the lottery and in order to claim his winnings he must pay for the taxes ahead of time.

"We do our best to let people know that they're scams and that it's not a wise decision to send the money," he said.

He also explained that transactions are relatively easier to regulate in the United States, but once it reaches overseas it's out of local law enforcement's jurisdiction.

Spruill said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney's Office are working together to figure out a way to regulate the transferring of money overseas.

In the meantime, he offered this age-old piece of advice: "If you think it's too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true."