Mystery shopping sounds cool. When people hear they can get paid to shop, they come out of the woodwork, thinking “I could do that,” or “I’d love to get paid to shop.” The idea becomes popular, especially in a depressed economy, especially for people desperate for work.
Scammers prey on this desperation. They can easily set up a website and 800 number. They put up advertising messages, like, “interested in becoming a mystery shopper?” Then they pay to have their listed higher in the Google ranks, so when people do a Google search, they find the scam site.
The scam companies then charge people for information that’s actually free in other places on the Internet. They also charge victims to sign up for jobs they’ll never get, because the company is not real. The scammers soon shut down, turn off their 800 number, and start under a new name and in a new location.
In addition, the victims end up on a spam or marketing list. These lists get sold to other scammers who send mail and email to the victims, hoping to catch them one more time.
Scammers also post jobs on Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com for survey taker, mystery shopper, or other work at home jobs. Three or four months after applying for this type of job, applicants will receive an email or letter. The letter usually comes with a check, an ethics agreement and/or employment agreement guaranteeing them 10 more shopping assignments.
This official letter is printed on a legitimate firm’s letterhead, with a Better Business Bureau logo, a near-perfect copy of the legitimate firm’s website url, and the scammer’s cell phone number.
When the victim calls the number on the letterhead to check on the offer, their call is answered by the scammer who says he’s with the real company. The victim are told to deposit the $5000 fraudulent check, for example, wire transfer $3500 to the scammer and keep $1500.
The check is a real check, drawn on a real bank. It has the the real company’s name and routing number, but the addressee and amount have been chemically washed off and replaced with the victim’s name and amount.
The old adage is still true: if it’s too good to be true it probably is. But desperate people want to believe the lie, and don’t ask enough questions. What makes it worse is the FBI won’t do anything about losses under $50,000, so they don’t investigate. These crimes are also difficult to investigate, prosecute and punish, since many scammers are outside the US.
If you’re ever asked to pay for information or the “privilege” of becoming a mystery shopper, don’t. It’s a scam that needs to be avoided. Real mystery shopping companies will never charge you to be one of their shoppers.
This problem goes back to the simplistic ads on the sides of websites declaring the person who visited the site won something absolutely fantastic. Leading some people to believe, “Oh, wow, I won this by just visiting the site!” So, consequently they’ll leave their information to this ‘ad’, and eventually find themselves victim to internet scamming. E-mail scamming is no different; people can believe that they’ll get lucky and try something out such as taking a job as a Mystery Shopper. However, their are legitimate companies out there, but they act quite different from the MS scammers. It’s just a matter of weeding them out, and learning who is reliable.
Not to be tacky BUT,,,in the next to last paragraph where the sentence begins, However, their are legitimate companies out,,, (their should be there). Just thought you might want to know. ” Their” is possessive while “there” is used when referring to a place. This is a common mistake with the English Language. Have a great day!