Secret Shopping and Merchandising

Below is a typical phishing scam using the name of a legitimate mystery shopping company.  Do not reply to this email.

If you are interested in working with the real About Face,  visit this website.

AboutFace™ is a market research company that uses Mystery/Secret Shopping or Mystery/Secret Consuming to measure quality of retail service or gather specific
information about products and services. We work with some of the largest, reputable businesses in the world; from Fast Food to Petroleum, Technology or
Fashion Retailers and more.

AboutFace™ is presently recruiting SECRET SHOPPERS in all states of the USA.

Read more…

Thank you for visiting and I hope you find this site useful.

There are a ton of mystery shopping/secret shopping scams out there and this site was created to help you skip past all the garbage and find legitimate ways to earn money in this interesting industry.

We provide links, education, and information on being an independent contractor in the secret shopping and merchandising fields.

Good luck and best wishes to your success.

Don’t do it.

JOB VACANCY ( MYSTERY SHOPPER)
…
Tue, March 30, 2010 11:34:58 AM
From:    Rodney Wells. <rodney.wells@charter.net>

We are a company that conduct surveys and evaluate other companies. We get hired to go to other
peoples companies and act like customers in order to know how the staffs are handling their services in
relation to their customers. 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 things or require services),
after which you would write a comment on the staffs activities and give a detailed record of your
experience

Examples of details you would forward to us are
1) How long it took you to get services.
2) Smartness of the attendant
3) Customer service professionalism, timeliness
4) Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant, to see how
they react to clients why they get tensed.

And we turn the information over to the company executives and they
would carry out their own duties in improving there services.
Most companies employ our assistance when people give complains about
their services, or when they feel there are needs for them to improve
their customer service. your Identity would be kept confidential as
the job states (secret shopper) you would be paid $200 for every duty
you carry out, and bonus on your transportation allowance, and funds
would be given to you if you have to dine as part of the duty
Your job will be to evaluate and comment on customer service in a wide
variety of shops, stores, restaurant and services in your area.
No commitment is made on this job, and you would have flexible hours
as it suits you. If you are interested do send in these information:

FULL NAME:
CONTACT ADDRESS:(NO P O BOX):
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
MOBILE NUMBER:
AGE:
OCCUPATION:

So we can look at your distance from the locations which you have to
put your service into, and your address would also be need for your
payments.

Thanks

Rodney Wells.
(206)-338-5939

Like most things in life, this is just a common sense thing to do that many of us just don’t do well enough.

Even if you have to back out of a shopping or merchandising job, it’s always best to communicate directly with your scheduler if that’s a possibility with the company you are working for.

No matter what the reason, unforeseen circumstances, bad time management on your part, or just no longer interested in that particular assignment for some reason, many schedulers will appreciate the extra effort of sending an email or making a phone call to let them know what’s going on before your assignment goes into a late status or is canceled.

As a personal example, one company suspended my account for not submitting my report when it was due.  This is not something that normally happens, but my paperwork plainly stated the consequences not reporting by the deadline for this particular project.  Most likely, if I would have contacted them before the report was due to let them know I wouldn’t be submitting it on time, I would not have been suspended.

I have since starting working for them again and have made a conscious effort to make sure I contact them anytime I’m running into issues.

Communicating can often let the scheduler find a replacement sooner so that they aren’t under even more deadline pressure than normal and as long as you aren’t a chronic problem, you’ll have a much better relationship with the scheduler and the company.

Emails like the following are never legit.  Even though they don’t ask for money, they ask for a lot of personal info to be sent to a throwaway email address.

EBay Secret Shopper® LLC
2123 West industrial Estate
Santa Clara, CA

Good Day,
“We have a mystery shopping assignment in your area and we would like you to participate”
Secret Shopper® is accepting applications for qualified individuals to become mystery shoppers.
It’s fun and rewarding, and you choose when and where you want to shop.You are never obligated to
accept an assignment.There is no charge to become a shopper and you do not need previous experience.
After you sign up, you will have access to training materials via e-mail, fax or postal mail.

The assignment will pay $200.00 per duty
Kindly Fill Out the application form below and we will get back to you shortly
with the assignment:

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Full Name:
Address:(NOT PO BOX):
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Age:
Nationality:
Cell Phone Number:
Home Phone Number:
Present Occupation:
Alternate Email Address:

Your response would be highly appreciated.
We look forward to working with you.
Sincerely,

Employment Officer
Brian Paulson
EBay Secret Shopper® LLC

Here are the full headers from this scammer’s email.

From Brian Paulson Wed Mar 17 06:20:28 2010
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Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:25:10 +0700
Reply-To: <bpaulson07@gmail.com>
From: “Brian Paulson”<bpaulson07@live.com>
Subject: SECRET SHOPPERS/STORE EVALUATORS NEEDED URGENT
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:20:28 +0100
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Hello and welcome to the first post on what will very shortly be Pittsburgh’s #1 resource and community for information on mystery shopping and merchandising.

After a few friends and acquaintances asked me how to get involved in this wacky world of shopping and merchandising as an independent contractor, I decided to put together this resource for all my Pittsburgh friends and neighbors.

Please feel free to register and join in with your thoughts and questions.

I hope you enjoy this site.

Spread the word if you like what you see so we can build a great community together.

Best wishes,

Chris B.