Make $100 to go shopping and report on my experience?  You bet I’m interested!

Mystery Shopper

What They Say

Here is how it is supposed to work:

• A market research company (“MRC”) performs business survey services to their clients – usually large corporations – to analyze their customer experiences.
• MRC uses select freelance individuals as mystery shoppers to perform “secret shopping” activities.
• Mystery shoppers fill out the surveys so the MRCs can report the results to their clients.
• MRC pays the shoppers for their services.

Sounds good, right?  Real good.

You know what they say about if it sounds too good to be true…  But what if it is legit? – I could be passing up good money that I could really use.  How can you tell and how do you decide?  Here is how I dealt with it…

(Note, what started out as intentions to be a short article has turned out to be quite a bit more involved.  I hope it will be helpful to you).

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What Was Said

In tough economic times, people are inspired to think creatively about generating income.  So naturally my interest was piqued when I received this email from someone at us-surveys.net that implied putting my analytical and writing skills to use in a way that would pay me well for my time used and afford me great flexibility in managing my own schedule:

Representatives Wanted

Our company(US Surveys) is proud to inform you that we now have one secret-shopper position available.

This is a part time position as it doesn’t take more then one hour to evaluate a store.

Your commission for each evaluation is $100 and you can receive assignments on daily basis.
In order to qualify for the secret-shopper position a candidate must be 21 years of age or older and own a wellsfargo account (it is recommended to open a fresh account to be used for this position only).

If you are interested in working as a secret shopper for our company you can request more information at dorispatwoodtastyvulb@gmail.com

Thank you,
US Surveys Inc.

Here are my initial thoughts:

Pros:

• Sounds reasonable.  Makes sense to specify that only adults 21 and over qualify
• It sounds good that they are looking out for my protection by recommending a fresh bank account.

Cons:

• There is no point of reference provided to establish any credibility – no website address nor links to third party articles or reviews.
• There is no identity claimed by the individual contacting me, which is suspicious and very unprofessional for a professional organization.
• The provided email address is a “generic” gmail address and does not sync with or support the domain name of any company.
• [BIG ONE here:] The return/Reply To email address was my own!

So far, the cons outweigh the pros, but nevertheless, I am still curious, so I decide to play again.  I click Reply and copy and paste the purported sender’s email address into the To line and say

Hi Doris,
I am interested, and am very good at writing reviews.  Please tell me more.
Thanks,
Stephen

The next day I received this response:

You requested more information about the MysteryShopper Position.  

To view the message visit the following link:

 http://tinyurl.com/reply-8358

Thank you,
Michael McDowell
US Surveys Inc.

My observations:

• The Reply To address this time was “michael.mcdowell.wf@comcast.net”.  But I ask “why is it an Internet/cable TV provider’s customer address instead of a company’s like “michael.mcdowell@us-surveys.net” ?  And what the heck is the “.wf” for after his name?
• And, why use tinyurl instead of a direct link to their own website?

So, in playing my next turn, I click the link and am taken to this URL: http://www.us-surveys.net/reply-8356.html.  It is a pure text page with no graphics, formatting, or links.

Subject: Re: MysteryShopper Position

---

Thank you for your interest in the MysteryShopper position. The minimum compensation for this part time position is $2,000 a month guaranteed.

Make sure you read the below information in full so you can understand everything about this position.

Our company conducts surveys and evaluates other companies in order to help them achieve their performance goals. We offer an integrated suite of business solutions that enables corporations to achieve tangible results in the marketplace.

We get hired by other companies and act like customers to find out how they are handling their services in relation to their customers. MysteryShopping is the most accurate and reliable tool a business can use to gather information regarding their actual customer service performance at the moment of truth. This moment of truth is not when the staff is on their best behavior because the boss is around – it is when they interact with customers during their normal daily routines.

This is where you, the MysteryShopper, come in. You pose as an ordinary customer and provide feedback of both factual observations (ex…the floor was free of debris) and your own opinions (ex…I felt that the temperature in the establishment was too high).

MysteryShoppers must remain anonymous. You must act as a regular customer and be careful not to do anything that would reveal you as a shopper. An inexperienced shopper could tip off the staff to his/her identity by asking for the manager’s name for no clear or appropriate reason. If you are going to be bringing someone with you on the shop, make sure you educate them about the process as well. Beware that even whispers can be overheard by employees. If anyone notices you are a shopper, you can bet that word will quickly spread around the establishment and you will get some of the best customer service in town.

No company can afford to have a gap between the promise of quality and its actual delivery, that’s why leading corporations look to us, the nation’s premiere MysteryShopping and customer experience measurement company.

In order for a business to effectively compete in today’s economy, they must be prepared to meet the challenge of increasing sales by:

* Retaining existing customers

* Acquiring new customers

* Creating word-of-mouth advocacy

* Improving customer loyalty

Once we have a contract to do so, you would be directed to the company or outlet, and you would be given the funds you need to do the job(either purchase merchandise or require services), after which you would write a detailed report of your experience.

Examples of details you would forward to us are:

1) How long does it take to get served.

2) Politeness of the attendant.

3) Customer service professionalism.

4) Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant, to see how they deal with difficult clients.

Then we turn the information over to the company executives and they will carry out their own duties in improving their services. Most companies employ our assistance when people complain about their services, or when they feel there is a need for them to improve upon their customer service. Our company partners with you to implement proven MysteryShop auditing and surveying strategies that provide critical information about customer experiences.

You will be paid a commission of $100 for every duty you carry out, and bonus on your transportation allowance. Your task will be to evaluate and comment on customer service in a wide variety of restaurants, retail stores, casinos, shopping malls, banks and hotels in your area.

A candidate for the MysteryShopper Position must meet the following requirements:

* Is 21 years of age or older

* Owns a wellsfargo account

* Loves to go shopping

* Is fair and objective

* Is ON TIME

* Is very observant and able to focus on details

* Is fairly intelligent

* Has patience

* Is detail oriented

* Is practical

* Types well

* Is trustworthy

* Explains well in writing

* Is discreet

* Loves to learn

* Handles deadlines

* Has full internet access (at home or at work)

MysteryShopping is fun and exciting but also must be approached very seriously and is definitely not for everyone.

If you are interested in applying for consideration as a MysteryShopper do send in the following information:

Full Name:

Address:

City/State/Zip:

Phone Number:

Age:

Occupation:

As soon as we receive your information we will add you to our database and we will check our system for locations in your area that needs to be evaluated so you can start your trial-run which consists in three surveys that are to be made over a period of time of one week and for which you will also get paid $100 commission per location.

Thank you,

Michael McDowell

US Surveys Inc.

My Thoughts:

• Why text only?
• Why no links?  If they want to user to take action, why not accommodate it?
• Not what one would expect from a legitimate company’s website.

When going directly to the base URL, http://www.us-surveys.net, there is a link to an option for Become A shopper: http://www.us-surveys.net/become_a_shopper.htm.  On this page there is an icon that says “Become A Shopper”, but it is not clickable and does nothing.

Other Observations About Their Website:

• Several pages are not there (like http://www.us-surveys.net/faqs.htm and several others)
• There are no testimonials and no case studies for any of their clients
• Doing a search in Google for their phone number (http://www.google.com/search?q=206-984-9324) returns the Better Business Bureau (BBB) page (http://www.bbb.org/western-washington/business-reviews/ponzi-schemes/wa-surveys-in-zurich-de-ch-22477499): they get a rating of F – the worst possible.
• Calling their listed phone number results in a FAX tone.
• The link to their own homepage “http://www.us-surveys.net/default.htm” leads to page not found – you have to delete the “default.htm”; not very sharp for a professional company.

Actually, you could go on and on about how their website fails to conform to one of a “real” company.  Instead, there are other ways to research US Surveys, Inc.

But Wait, There’s More!

US Surveys has also been known by some other names over the years, including WA Surveys.

In an attempt to bring this article to a close, I want to tell you that there is a lot more to be found on US Surveys on some other websites:

• www.RipoffReport.com
• Better Business Bureau
• www.Scam.com
• www.mysteryshopforum.com
• Anti-Fraud International
• ScamVistimsUnited.com

How The Scam Works

Basically, it is a variety of the bank/wire-transfer scam.  It is stated so well on Wikipedia that I’ll let them tell you:

There exists a scam that uses mystery shopping as a premise for fraud, where a person is sent a bad check with a request to deposit it into their bank account, wire a portion of the money through a wire transfer company such as Western Union or MoneyGram and keep the remainder as a mystery shopping fee, and informed to mail the money immediately as the test is evaluating response time. People who wire the “remainder” discover the check is bad and lose the money they transfer and the wire transfer service fee in addition to the total amount of the check, often leaving them in debt to their banks.^[8] One scam involved fraudulent websites using a misspelled URL to advertise online and in newspapers under a legitimate company’s name.^[9]

Valid mystery shopping companies will never send their clients a check to cash prior to work being completed, and their advertisements will usually include a contact person and phone number. Checks received from mystery shopping companies should only be in payment for work performed, and can always be taken to a bank to be verified. Most fraudulent cheques sent out by scam artists can be easily spotted and identified by a financial professional.

On February 3, 2009 The Internet Crime Complaint Center issued a warning on this scam. http://www.ic3.gov/media/2009/090203.aspx

Be sure to check out that link above at the US Government’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (“IC3”), as it also raises the specter of identity theft as one of the key intents of work-at-home scams.

Are there legitimate mystery-shopping and work-at-home jobs out there?  Sure there are.  But you have to be wise when you consider them.

Be wise!

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