The Mystery Shopper's Manual

Don’t get scammed again by someone offering compensation or scam victim help.

The mystery shopper scam and others like it have taken millions of dollars from people all over the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and elsewhere around the world. Often, the victims of these scams are the people who can least afford to be taken for thousands of dollars. So, when someone comes along saying that they have been authorized to repay the money that was scammed from them, these victims may line up to get scammed again.

I get many emails a week that are similar to the one below. In each case, there are signs that this is yet another scam; however, someone who is desperate could overlook those signs, just as they did the first time they got caught up in one of these schemes.

Take a look at the scam email, then I will point out some of the signs that it is not a legitimate offer:
…continue reading Victim of a Scam?

• » Comments (24)

There are many posts on this blog about the mystery shopper check scam. A recent comment on one of those posts asked:

What would happen if I cashed the check in but never wired the money to anyone? Just kept it to myself. The thought came up but I wouldn’t ever do it.

Cashing the check would be a bad idea, and I am glad that this commenter understood that. My response was that there is no money to keep–the check would eventually be returned and the bank would take back any money they had given, as well as charging fees on the returned check. And it could be worse than that.

Here is a news story from New Mexico television station KOB4 about what happened when one woman decided that she would “scam the scammers.”
…continue reading Don’t Try to Scam the Mystery Shopper Scammers

• » Comments (5)

A man from Santa Ynez California has been sentenced to serve six years in federal prison for operating a scam falsely promising bartending and mystery shopper jobs. Approximately 87,400 victims across the United States were defrauded by the scheme, which ran from 2001 through 2004 and caused nearly $6.2 million in losses.

Stevan P. Todorovic, 40, was sentenced by United States District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. In sentencing Todorovic, Judge Hatter noted that, in addition to taking money from victims, Todorovic caused a “loss of hope, a loss of opportunity.”

Last July, a federal jury convicted Todorovic of seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of mail fraud for making false promises to people seeking work.

…continue reading Mystery Shopper Scam Lands California Man in Prison

• » Comments (2)

Finally, a story about a mystery shopper scam that has a happy ending.

Back in January, Kathy Jones of Chesterfield, Virginia wired $4680 via Western Union as part of what she thought was a mystery shop. You know the rest, right? Shortly after sending the money, her credit union informed her that the check she had received bounced and she would have to repay the money.

The happy twist? …continue reading Mystery Shopper Scam = FAIL

• » Comments (6)

Scammers succeed by getting their victims to trust them. This is true for secret shopper scams, lottery scams, pigeon drops, home repair scams or any other type of scam.

Getting potential victims to trust them is easier than you might think. For one thing, honest people may not understand how scams work, and may be less likely to spot the signs of a scam. And most people expect others to act as they do. Because most people are basically honest, they expect that others they encounter will also be honest. Scammers use that against their victims.

Let’s look at some typical scammer tricks and how they are used in secret shopper scams.
…continue reading How Secret Shopper Scams Gain Your Trust

• » Comments (7)

In the last few days, I have been contacted by two mystery shoppers who let me know they received mystery shopper scam emails that claimed to be from the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA). Both were obvious scams, but the scam might not be as obvious to someone unfamiliar with mystery shopping.

The use of the MSPA name is clearly an attempt to make the scam look legitimate to people who are not acquainted with secret shopping, or have just a vague awareness of it. Doing a search for Mystery Shopping Providers Association or MSPA would show that MSPA is a legitimate organization. That might cause an unsuspecting person to believe the scam is a real offer.

Here are the things that should tip you off that this is a scam:
…continue reading Mystery Shopper Scam Uses Name of MSPA

• » Comments (161)

Dr. Linda Eagle of the Edcomm Group Banker’s Academy was recently interviewed by San Francisco’s KGO-TV Consumer Reporter Michael Finney for a 7 On Your Side story exploring the actions wire transfer companies are taking to stop financial scams. With the amount of money appropriated from scams in the US reaching $24 million in 2008, the story reported that many scams are still going unnoticed at money transfer companies across the country. …continue reading What Wire Transfer Companies Can Do to Stop Mystery Shopper Scams

• » Comments (7)

So by now everyone reading this has heard about the check scam that lures victims by telling them they can earn hundreds of dollars for an hour or so of work. All they have to do is cash a check for a couple thousand dollars (generously provided by the scammer), keep a few hundred for their time, and wire the rest to another person (often in Canada, but they could be anywhere).

The scam? Sometime after the money has been sent off by the victim and claimed by the scammer, the check is discovered to the a forgery. The victim’s bank demands that they pay back all of the money, plus fees for the returned check and any checks the victim has now bounced because their account was debited for the amount of the bogus check.

We refer to mystery shopper scams, but in fact this is a check/wire transfer scam. …continue reading Mystery Shoppers Aren’t the Only Ones Getting Scammed

• » Comments (1)

I ran across a story about a secret shopper scam with a new twist. If true, it means that mystery shopper scammers are trying to get ahead of the curve to continue their schemes as more people get wise to them. However, I suspect that this story may not be exactly as it appears.

Here is the story about a secret shopper scam that appeared on a Wisconsin television station. According to the report, a woman signed up to be a mystery shopper and completed some price audits. She was paid $10 to $20 for each of them. Fairly common, right?

According to the news story, after doing several of these audits over the course of six to eight months, the company for which she had been working sent her a check for $1975, telling her to keep $100 or so for her fee, and to wire most of the money to someone. You know how this ends, right? Of course, the check she received was fraudulent, and she was out the money.

It is possible it happened exactly as stated in the report: A scammer actually made several small payments to a potential victim to convince her that she was working for them as a mystery shopper, so that she would not question it when they sent her a large check and told her to wire money somewhere. However, I doubt that. …continue reading Are Mystery Shopper Scams Getting Sneakier?

• » Comments (23)