Mystery Shopper's Manual

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How Secret Shopper Scams Gain Your Trust

November 19, 2010 by Cathy Stucker 6 Comments

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

Checking Out Mystery Shopping Scams

November 16, 2009 by Cathy Stucker Leave a Comment

mystery-shopping-scamsI get emails every day asking about this or that email that someone received, or a company or some specific offer. What concerns me about some of these emails is that people are asking the wrong questions. They ask things such as, “Is XYZ Company a legitimate mystery shopping company?,” overlooking the fact that the email or check they got isn’t really from XYZ Company.

One shopper forwarded some correspondence between a friend of hers and a scammer. Fortunately, the shopper had stopped her friend before she fell for the secret shopper scam. However, I was somewhat shocked to see some of the assumptions her friend had made. It was clear that this woman was bright and educated, but it never occurred to her to question anything the scammer presented about himself. For example, at one point she informed the scammer that she had checked out his company with the Better Business Bureau, and was pleased to find that they had a satisfactory rating. That would not be a bad idea, except that the scammer had no affiliation with the company whose name he was using. You read that right: a criminal was willing to lie. Are you surprised?Continue Reading

Mystery Shopper Scam Victim Put in Jail

July 25, 2009 by Cathy Stucker 25 Comments

handcuffsYes, you read that right. The victim of a mystery shopper scam was arrested and put in jail.

A woman in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota (near Minneapolis) received one of those “be a mystery shopper for us” scam emails promising $300 for a simple mystery shop. After responding, she received a check for $2700, with instructions to cash the check, perform the “mystery shop” and wire most of the money to someone in Africa.Continue Reading

How to Handle a Mystery Shopping Scam Check

June 3, 2009 by Cathy Stucker 521 Comments

bank-checkIf you have gotten one of those checks for thousands of dollars from someone representing themselves as a mystery shopping company, you are about to be scammed. Unless, of course, you follow the advice in this article.

Mystery shopping companies do not send checks for thousands of dollars to potential mystery shoppers. Ever. They do not ask you to wire money. Ever. I have written about mystery shopper scams many times, but even some of the people who read those articles will want to believe that their situation is the exception, and they are going to get paid $400 for a couple of hours of work. Not gonna happen. Ever.

Before you cash the check and wire the money off to the scammer, humor me for a minute. Do a couple of things to check them out. If I’m wrong and the “offer” if legitimate, you can post a comment and say I was wrong. But if I’m right, you will save yourself thousands of dollars, lots of aggravation, and possibly some jail time. (Cashing a forged check is a crime, and you may have to convince the police that you are the victim to get out of trouble.)

Here’s what to do…Continue Reading

Mystery Shopper Email Scam

May 3, 2009 by Cathy Stucker 7 Comments

woman-laptopThe mystery shopper email scam is still going strong. The most recent version forwarded to me by a secret shopper uses the name of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association in an attempt to make the email scam seem credible.

Here is the email the mystery shopper received:

Subj: Vacant Post for Mystery Shoppers
From: xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Reply-to: xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com

Mystery Shopping Providers Association is giving you a chance to get paid for shopping and dinning out. Mystery shoppers are Needed Throughout America . You’ll be paid to shop and dine out-plus,you can also get free meals,Free merchandise, Free services, Free Entertainment, Free travel and lots more, Great Pay, Fun Work, Flexible Schedules,No experience required.If you can shop-you are qualified! But you must be 18yrs and above.

This is a new Year, you can start earning free cash as our Shopper. We can assure you that is going to be fun and you will love it
kindly send us a reply to inquiry about the Job offer to the email below

xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com

We care and We share. We will be expecting to read from you

[Alleged Name of Slimy Scammer]
Admin Agent
www.mysteryshop.org
© MSPA, 2009

There are a few clues that this is a scam.Continue Reading

How to Spot a Mystery Shopper Scam Web Site

April 17, 2009 by Cathy Stucker 76 Comments

mystery-shopper-scamThe people running mystery shopper scams are getting more sophisticated. Because more people are becoming aware of the scams, some of the scammers are making an attempt to look more like legitimate mystery shopping companies, and that can include putting up a web site with a professional appearance.

I was recently contacted by a shopper who got a mystery shopper job offer that just didn’t look right. I looked at the web site of the company that wanted to hire scam him, and I saw several things right away that made me think this was not legitimate.

Of course, when a company sends you a large check before you have done anything with them, it is a scam. Always. Read more about the mystery shopper check scam elsewhere on this site. But that was not the case in this situation. This company had a nice looking web site and were acting in some ways like they were a real mystery shopping company.

Here is what you can do to check out a mystery shopping company’s web site. Although seeing one bad sign doesn’t mean that you are dealing with a mystery shopping scam, it could. Several red flags should send you running in the other direction, as fast as you can.Continue Reading

Mystery Shopping Companies

Updated 4/20/18! Access my free curated list of more than 150 legitimate mystery shopping companies.

Scam Warning

If you received a check or money order with instructions to cash it and wire money to someone, DON'T DO IT! This is a scam.
Click here to learn more about
mystery shopper scams.

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