gavel-thumbnailA northeast Iowa woman has admitted to sending out phony money orders in an attempt to scam people. Postal investigators found in 2013 that 51-year-one-year-old Shirley Hills of Oelwein was sending counterfeit checks and money orders through the mail and confronted her.

Hills told investigators she was sending the fake documents as part of a job she found online. Hills said she would stop sending out the fake money orders and checks, but then started sending them out again.

Hills has now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. She admits she sent the fake materials to people who she told had been selected as Mystery Shoppers to try and get them to cash the money orders and wire cash to other people. She admitted to attempting to mail $170,000 in counterfeit money orders in November of 2013 and then tried to mail a package containing  $401,000 in the fake money orders in May of 2014.

She remains free until her sentencing, which has not yet been set.