A very serious and costly scam is currently targeting mystery shoppers right now. I have been contacted by several of my subscribers, who have been victimized by it. Unfortunately, some of my subscribers have informed me that someone is impersonating MysteryShopOnline.com in perpetrating the scam.
This is very serious: If anyone claiming to represent a mystery shopping company sends you a large check, DO NOT CASH IT. Even if the bank says it is OK. Even if they claim to represent a company you have worked with. Even if they claim to represent MysteryShopOnline.com. They are lying and out to steal your money. DO NOT CASH THE CHECK. Instead, contact the police, the Federal Trade Commission. Your state’s attorney general may also be a good person to contact.
When protecting yourself from scams in the mystery shopping world, there are two rules of thumb that I follow:
- Never cash a large check from any mystery shopping company, especially as part of an assignment.
- I never give my Social Security Number to any company until AFTER I have completed an assignment with them, and gotten paid for it.
There are plenty of legitimate mystery shopping companies out there, and if you’re a little careful it is relatively easy to avoid scams.
If anyone claiming to represent MysteryShopOnline.com has contacted you about completing a mystery shopping assignment, please send me an email or leave a comment. I would like to get to the bottom of this, and stop the person who is damaging my business. Thank you.
Is this a ligitimateHello,
We are accepting applications for qualified individuals to become mystery shoppers. It’s fun and rewarding.There is no charge to become a shopper and you do not need previous experience and you would be paid $200 for every duty you carryout,
JOB DESCRIPTION:
1. You will receive funding for the assignment.
2. You will receive the Instruction for your assignment via email on the location and details of the assignment.
3. You are to complete the assignment as fast and discreetly as possible.
4. You will be asked to visit a business location to conduct business be it a restaurant, shopping store etc.
PAYMENT TERMS:
You will receive a flat sum of $200 per assignment. The company will furnish you with all expense needed for the assignment and any other expense incurred during the course of executing your assignment.
Note: You are to follow all instructions given to you to the fullest. KINDLY SEND YOUR INFORMATION BELOW TO PROCEED ON FIRST ASSIGNMENT TO (smith.walter@aol.com)
Your Full Name:
Your Address (NOT P.O Box):
City, State:
Occupation:
Phone Number:
AGE:
Regards .
Smith Walter
Secret Shopper®
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company?
From: smith walter
To:
Sent: Saturday, September 3, 2011 10:15 AM
Subject: Mystery Shopper(GET BACK TO ME ASAP)
Hello,
Shopper’s Guide wants you to run a survey on two prominent companies in your area.
The 1st is a Western Union Location
The 2nd a Restaurant
There has been reports about lack in the services of their Management and some of their staffs,the complaints were based on reports which their customers forwarded anonymously and Phone calls which were also made to the head office.The Western union location was reported for evaluation, Negligence for the following reasons:
I) Customers have reported their money missing
II) Slow services
III) Unbalanced transfer charges The 2nd company was reported to be rendering(I) Poor services(II) Rudeness to customers
IV) Excess charge
V) Late opening time and Closing before time.Your Secret Evaluation would be
1) To make a transfer of funds from this western union location to our Mystery shopper, and the funds would be picked up by another mystery shopper at the exact location Which a customer reported her funds missing.
2) You would have to record the time at which you go to the location and how many minutes it took you to get service.
3) You would be sent a check/Money order which would cover your payment of $200 and also for the duty. As soon as you receive the check/money order, you would cash in at your bank, and deduct your $200.00, and use the rest of the money for the services.
4) Upon receiving the funds, the locations address would be forwarded to you, and also the Name and address of whom the Mystery shoppers transfer would be made to. You would have to keep a comprehensive report on every activity you carry out.
5) You would also provide me with the name of the cashier that attended to you. Please, confirm to me that you did received this message so that the check/Money order can be sent out to you ASAP.
KINDLY RECONFIRM YOUR CORRECT INFORMATION BELOW.
Your Full Name:
Your Address (NOT P.O Box):
City, State, Zip:
Occupation:
Phone Number(s):
AGE:
I will await your prompt response.
Smith Walter
I recieved this Is it a scam?
Prospective Jacoby Malloy,
One of America’s largest, discount department outlet is re-branding.The retail
industry is a competitive world, with each retailer vying for the attention of
consumers in an increasingly cluttered market. We do not want to rely on
proprietary data collection processes and technology alone, we need appraisers
to collect specific data about their experience and opinion when they visit this
retail outlet, in a time efficient and cost effective manner.
The purpose of Mystery Shoppers is to help businesses increase sales and improve
employee customer service awareness. We provide businesses with more information
than other mystery shopping companies through the use of questionnaires and
detailed narratives. Once we have a contract to do so, you will be directed to
the company or outlet and you will be given funds to either purchase things or
require services, after which you would write a comment on the staffs activities
and give a detailed report of your experience.Some of the common details and
information points shoppers:
The name of the store.
The date and time of the visit.
The names of the employee that attended to you.
Were you greeted friendly.
The questions asked by the employee(s)
Were you told to drop by again.
Cleanliness of store and store employees
Speed of service.
We need compliance with company standards relating to services rendered and
store appearanceby employees to be up to standard. We turn the information over
to the company executives so they will carry out their own duties in improving
there services.
When we need someone in your area for the assignment, we’ll give you a
call/email and describe the project to see if you are interested.Sometimes we
will arrange for a mini-interview on phone.
Fill out the resume below. On appointment for an assignment, payment will be
sent to you at the address you provide us with , send to shoppershops77@aol.com
First Name:
Last Name:
Street Address(No Po Box Accpeptable) :
City :
State :
Zip Code :
Cell Phone Number/Home Phone Number :
Age:
Current Occupation:
Alternate Email Address :
Through extensive background check, your information will be reviewed and
processed. Immediately this is done we will give a phone call/email will be sent
to let you know your placement with our company.
Charles Carter
Task Co-ordinator
Wal- Mart Rebranding
Wal-Mart Inc
This company Informa Research Services sends me emails for “shopping”tasks available. The issue I have is they want me to complete a W9 form first.
Please note: You must have a W9 form on file with us in order to accept any shops. Please log into your shopper profile and click “Show me forms I can enter directly”. If you don’t know your login information, please inform me and I can provide you with it.
How do I know if this is safe and legit? The tasks also involve inquiring into mortgages. I am also skeptical that this could effect my credit score if I inquire into many loans? Any thoughts?
Thanks,
M
I am kinda knew to this and to me the whole thing sounds kinda fishy. Is this a legitimate one?
Hello,
Thanks for the swift mail response ,Your contact will be input into our system. Pending approval from the Recruiting department. As an assistant you will be a mystery shopper which would begin next week and in this would result to us providing you with more information .
PAYMENT TERMS:
Your payment would be sent weekly , Also the company is in charge of providing you with all expense money for the shopping and other expenses involved in the assignment . All you need would be provided to you with details every week you have an assignment.
JOB DESCRIPTION :
1} When an assignment is given to you , You would be provided details to execute the assignment.
2} You would be asked to visit a company or store mostly our competitors as a secret shopper and shop with them to know more about their sales and stock , cost sales and more details as provided by the company then report back to the company with report . But anything you buy at the shop belongs to you . All we want is an effective/quick job and reports.
ASSIGNMENT PACKET :
Before any assignment we would provide you with the resources needed {cash}Mostly our company send MONEY ORDERS which you can cash and use for the assignment. Included to the check would be your assignment packet. Then we would be providing you details on here. But you follow every single information given to you as a secret shopper.
You can earn more which involves nothing more than shopping at a number of selected retailers and assessing their customer service and reporting back. So i want you to get back to me with confirmation of your interest and commitment in working with us,Mostly we need your phone number for contact.
KINDLY CONFIRM THE BELOW INFORMATION PROVIDED FOR ASSESSMENT .
First Name:…………………………..
Last Name:…………………………..
Full Address(NOT PO BOX):…………………………..
City:…………………………..
State:…………………………..
Zip Code:…………………………..
Country:…………………………..
Phone Number:…………………………..
Cell Phone:…………………………..
Gender:…………………………..
Age:…………………………..
Occupation:…………………………..
I would await your confirmation response.
Sincerely,
Edwin Morgan
Mystery Shopping Consultancy.
I also found the request in a newspaper that I read quite often for job opportunities.
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