anybody knows about mystery shopper?

[thetop31]

I am looking for job, and I saw mystery shopper, I KNOW it is scam they just want to cheat money from people, but I received one personal email about this, they sent to me a money order, Money order also have counterfeit? I knew that I received a fake check before. cos this time they told me the same thing they sent amount of money and they ask me send back part, so for sure they are scam. Sign, so many bad people!

[gaylasue]

Yes, there are counterfeit money orders.  If you cash it, hang on to the money for a bit in case it is fake.  I get a lot of e-mails of mystery shopper sites.  Still haven't got up enough nerve (or gotten desparate enough) to try them.  I'll keep checking back to see if anyone else has had success.

[fallinpinkrose]

my aunt use to do mystery shopping and had a lot of luck with it. my mom had attempted it and the site she used was a fraud.you have to be careful with those things...

[mary_k]

I came across that also. I wonder if it works or not.

[thetop31]

is this a really career? I wonder,anybody get money? I heard about one person said his daughter is a mystery shopper but she keep spending money,get less.

[mc1962]

If it sounds too good to be true then it usually is........I have had some bad luck with some PTC sites that I will not mention and I am so glad that Fusion Cash is legit.

I would not trust a site that sends you money up-front in a check or money order and asks you to send them back a portion........somethings wrong with that picture. 

[mawhite63]

I've done Mystery Shopping a few times.

There are quite a number of legit places, such as A Closer Look. You just have to really take the time to read the instructions and sample reports, and follow the orders exactly.

A lot of people think it's going to be easy, don't take the time to study how the customer wants the job done, and then are too ready to cry "SCAM!" when they get declined due to giving shoddy work or a report that is full of misspelling and grammar errors.

I think it's fun to do every now and then, but it's a LOT of work for a free meal or hotel stay. It's definitely not a "job" If you're the type of person who likes rewarding people for good customer service though, definitely check it out. I love to write up a report praising someone.  You do have to tell if someone is sloppy, rude or provides bad service, but at most of the restaurants that's rare.

[mlhnceh]

My sister in law did mystery shopping for a long time.  There are some legit companies, but lots of scams too.  Her problem became that she had to buy products she didn't use (she would get reimbursed) but then stuck with the product. 

[AnnetteDunn24]

I did a mystery shop through ICCDS and loved it.  My payment is being processed but could take up to 30 days to be posted to my Pay-Pal account.  I enjoyed it & it was the easiest $10 I've made so far.  I had to make a $3.00 purchase & it will be reimbursed also.  So free socks & $10 for about 30 minutes of shopping - Hmmm a womans dream job!!!!

[vmcutshall]

I received the same thing and I turned my check over to my bank for fraud. They are pursuing the check as they would any bad fraudulant check. They said that I was not the only to receive these types of checks but atleast I checked it out instead of just depositing it and sending them the money back. I also contacted Western Union and filed fraud charges through them also. If more people would do this maybe we could get them stopped.

[redrose77]

Good for you I didn't know if this was a scam but I am so glad to hear about this mystery shopper. I don't anyone that has made any money doing this?

[gaylasue]

I have been a "shadow shopper" for about three months now.  I am having a ball!  Between last Thursday evening and Friday evening, I made $50, had six meals, got $5 of groceries free and paid to donate food to a food bank.  Last Saturday I made $25 for going new car shopping.  I have gotten paid to get my hair cut, my car serviced and mail packages and was paid for doing the shop as well as the services were paid.  I have also made $30 by doing mystery internet shopping.  I've made $5 a couple of times by doing telephone mystery shopping.  My husband and I have gotten to eat at several nice restaurants that were all free.  I did join Shadow Shoppers and they hooked me up with several mystery shopping companies.  I have been getting so many assignments that I have to write them down on the calendar to keep from forgetting about them.   My daughter's fiance has started mystery shopping and he is enjoying it, also.  They live in a large city so he has more opportunities than I do living in a small community.

I do recommend you be very cautious in what you click on while surfing the internet.  There are many scams out there.  I've been blessed so far and everything has turned out legitimate.

[lvstephanie]

Yes there are a lot of scams, but there are also several legit companies as well. Basically if the site talks about how you'll be able to get a bunch of free stuff, and get paid for it, with very little talking about the work that is involved, then I'd start to be more weary that it's just a scam. Legit companies usually have some type of writing test, or test assignments to verify that you can communicate your experiences to the specs that they are looking for. Also, they usually will pay / reimburse you after you have completed the assignment. Again be cautious if they are sending you a check to cash before you've started the assignment. I've been a member of a legitimate company, but unfortunately there haven't been any assignments in our area yet. I did have a friend who is a manager of a retail store, that was asked by one of her customers to do a mystery shopping assignment for the customer's family business.

One thing that I heard of doing is to promote yourself as a mystery shopper on Craigslist etc. And in order to provide proof of your expertise, to perform "mystery shopping" yourself for free... If you go to a retail store and they have some survey about your experience, perform those and (if possible without violating the rules of the survey) record what you did. A different idea along this note is to start a blog about your shopping experiences. That way when you go to promote yourself, you can direct potential customers (those that have the assignments) to that blog so they can see for themselves that you are committed to actually providing a quality service for these assignments instead of just trying to get a freebie.

If you do want to go along the lines of blogging, a different possibility is to talk about products instead of shopping experiences. For example, you may want to be a food critic, comparing Campbell's vs Progresso, etc. (see this example in Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2075381/). I've seen some indy blog-sites that do this, where after they have made a reputation for themselves with their own personal experiences / purchases, they can then contact the manufacturers saying that they have a product testing blog and were wanting a free / discounted item to use in an upcoming evaluation.

[vmcutshall]

_{I am looking for job, and I saw mystery shopper, I KNOW it is scam they just want to cheat money from people, but I received one personal email about this, they sent to me a money order, Money order also have counterfeit? I knew that I received a fake check before. cos this time they told me the same thing they sent amount of money and they ask me send back part, so for sure they are scam. Sign, so many bad people!}


I turned my check over to my bank to be handled by the fraud division. They said that they had alot of these scams going around and that I was smart to turn it in.

[U2BMATH]

Hey Everybody, here's my next post with a Video Link. Watch the video, and enjoy the show. In this video I answer 2 topics...:

1). What About Being A Mystery Shopper?
2). Magic Jack Rules - Here's Why.

...and I make my 4th suggestion for finding referrals for Fusion Cash - Lemonade Stand.

Watch My Video For Details & Answers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGf63toJrN4

Mike