Too good to be true?
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Whoever sent it has no idea you mystery shop. It's just a standard scam email that seems to be in every spammers rotation. Part of the blame does fall to the legitimate players in the industry who like to advertise mystery shopping as so fun and so lucrative rather than something that entails so much real work. MS is also a real mystery to the average person who would have a harder time distinguishing the absurdity of $200 commissions.
Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
It just seems like a huge coincidence that I recently signed up with 150+ MSC's (I only worked for 2 for a long time) and NOW I got this spam email. That's the only reason I'd even consider it to be legitimate, even if there wasn't a $200 offer. Plus, I know how marketing works. Anyone could say that and you go in and there's not any for that price, they just advertise it as possible, so I'm kind of overlooking that part.
So I do know better and know it's probably a scam, but how did they get my email? Do any MSC's sell emails or did I maybe sign up for a fake MSC at some point, although I'm pretty sure I've only signed up for MSC's from this forum, MSPA site and JobSlinger. Hmmmm..
So I do know better and know it's probably a scam, but how did they get my email? Do any MSC's sell emails or did I maybe sign up for a fake MSC at some point, although I'm pretty sure I've only signed up for MSC's from this forum, MSPA site and JobSlinger. Hmmmm..
Who is your email through? I doubt they got your email address from anyone. Normally mass emails are sent to variations on the same email address. For example, I could get one to LisaSTL while the same thing is going to LisaSTL1, LindaSTL, LisaSteel, etc, etc. Other reasons your email would be out there is if someone's email got hacked and you were in their address book.
My guess is hundreds of other people got that same email and a small percentage may really be mystery shoppers. No different than sending emails saying the recipients BOA account was hacked. The more emails sent the higher the chance it will be received by actual BOA account holders only in this case the scammer doesn't really care if you are a mystery shopper or not. In fact, they prefer you aren't so you are more likely to fall for the scam.
So yes, huge maybe, but probably a coincidence nonetheless.
My guess is hundreds of other people got that same email and a small percentage may really be mystery shoppers. No different than sending emails saying the recipients BOA account was hacked. The more emails sent the higher the chance it will be received by actual BOA account holders only in this case the scammer doesn't really care if you are a mystery shopper or not. In fact, they prefer you aren't so you are more likely to fall for the scam.
So yes, huge maybe, but probably a coincidence nonetheless.
Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
Spammers/scammers get emails in a LOT of ways. Thru social media, spyware on someone else's computer, hacking Internet providers, people sharing your info.... Frustrating, to be sure, but at least there's the Delete button.
I use Hotmail. Like I said, I get a lot of spam, but Hotmail is great at automatically putting it in my junk and 99% of the spam is either about me inheriting millions of dollars or it's Viagra and/or sex related haha. And I've seen what you're talking about @LisaSTL I usually see in the email that spam was sent to many variations of my email, but not this one, although I know they can BCC it. But no website or real company name, and no web results for the name or email address, so yes, probably just a very weird coincidence and I will ignore it! I've heard so much about scams in this business but this is the first one I've seen.
Actually, the email referenced by the OP is legit, or at least mostly.
Sophie Austin is sort of a sad soul, running a small-time mystery shopping operation out of her deceased grandparents’ ranch near Ojai, California. Most of you will remember her mother Jaime Sommers-Austin and her father Steve Austin. Two separate and highly acclaimed documentary series chronicled their lives in the mid-70’s, “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman.”
You’ll recall that both documentaries ended their broadcast runs with the 1978-79 season, due primarily to the fact that the series documenting Steve was produced by ABC, but NBC had bought the rights to Jaime’s saga. The repeated intersections of their individual OSI assignments caused irreconcilable inter-network conflicts, and the production squabbles began to interfere with Steve and Jaime’s work in saving the world. It is unlikely that the programs’ contracts would have been renewed anyway, as 1979 brought with it three new documentary series that sadly seemed to captivate America’s imagination more greatly than the upright, responsible, patriotic and mostly platonic lives of public service as lived by Steve and Jaime.
The first documentary that usurped Sophie’s parents (Remember Sophie? We’ll get back to her soon enough…) was the Dixie-reviving, denim short-shorts fashion trend-setting, battle flag waving, car-window-entry fad establishing “Dukes of Hazard.” The second documentary begun in 1979 was the gritty expose of real life in an all-girls boarding school, “Facts of Life.” Of course the prosthetic nail in Jaime and Steve’s TV coffin was the much hotter love-interest crime solving duo found in “Hart to Hart,” as camera crews followed Jonathan and Jennifer around the globe in their on-the-job learning of the detective trade.
Anyway, for several years after being freed of their tag-along production crews, Jaime and Steve maintained their friendship and continued their work with OSI, fighting off Fembots and thwarting countless mind-control world domination schemes by Fortress. We are all unknowingly but forever indebted to their efforts to make the world a safer place.
Fast-forward a decade, though, and you may recall three movies featuring the bionic couple in ’87, ’89, and ’94. Sadly, due to the post-Reagan era military and intelligence drawdowns, government funding was not renewed for the maintenance of Jaime and Steve’s many prosthetic needs. It is a sad commentary upon contemporary social values that their three big-screen documentary films were entered into out of abject desperation for paying for calibration and repairs to their bionic body parts. We, the public, may have thought it was all just a nostalgic feel-good culmination of the careers of two faithful public servants, but plain and simple, Steve and Jaime were just trying to make ends meet.
Still, who could forget the international headline grabbing final scene of their third and final documentary, filmed in 1993 but released in 1994. At long last, Jaime and Steve tied the knot… better, faster and stronger than we could ever have imagined. Little did we know, however, that it was a marriage of necessity, for even while the bride leapt 60 feet down the aisle in one bound, Jaime was with child. Steve’s famous one handed hoisting of a divan to catch his bride in mid-air was as much obstetrician’s orders as it was bionic showmanship.
And the child that Jaime Sommers, now Jaime Sommers-Austin was carrying as she leapt down the aisle? That’s right. Sophie Austin.
Jaime and Steve are now in their 70’s. Their evil-thwarting days are past. The government has put them out to pasture, and consequently their parts have worn and rusted. The three of them live together with Maximillion (yes, the bionic dog lives on… apparently the dog has private patrons who keep replacing canine parts while Steve and Jaime rust away) on the ranch that belonged to Jaime’s mother and step-father near the Air Force base where Jaime once taught.
Sophie helps the best that she can. Devoid of bionics of her own (apparently bionic powers are not procreatively transmitted, no matter how bionic the parts engaged in coital union), Sophie is relegated to pity-work arranged through the machinations of OSI. She has the mystery shopping contract for all the Army and Air Force Exchanges throughout the continental U.S.
Which brings us to the OP’s email in question. Is it legit? Yes, BUT… you need access to military bases in order to complete any assignments for Sophie. She neglects to mention that in her recruiting emails. Her bad grammar and pseudo-cryptographic contact info collection form are simply evidence of her having missed a formal primary education due to her parents’ constant crime-fighting travels and her primary care-giving grandparents declining mental acuity and their eventual accidental death (they wandered onto the missile testing range of the neighboring AF base while out for a Sunday stroll) in 2004 when Sophie was only ten years old.
So, would I recommend shopping for Sophie Austin through MS-Recruitment? I’d have to say no, but it is not due to any sort of fraud or malicious intent on Sophie’s part. It’s just that, while she really does intend to pay $200 per visit (if you can get on base), she forgets that $200 is what she is being paid per month for weekly visits. Then she thinks nothing of splitting it four ways, $50 for you (total payment for four weekly visits, i.e. $12.50 per visit), $50 for herself, $50 for her mom and $50 for her dad, calling it simply “fair” and really meaning that, not saying it as a justification for her breaching your contract.
Now, while I would not recommend shopping for her, I would heartily recommend that you meaningfully support her and her broken-bionic yet perpetually heroic parents (and their dog… don’t forget Max). To do so, simply send to me the same information that Sophie is requesting in her email, along with your checking account number, routing number, social security number, and your mother’s maiden name. Let me know how much you’d like to contribute towards the “Six Million Dollar Relief Fund,” and I’ll take care of transferring the funds for you. Please note, that since this is not a 501(c)(3) charity, you cannot legally claim this as a deduction on your federal income tax. However, I know that the satisfaction that you will receive from helping poor Sophie and her real American hero parents (and their dog, please remember the dog) will more than make up for the lost charitable deduction.
Thank you for your time and effort in reading this admittedly lengthy story behind the email. I look forward to receiving your contributions in support of Jaime, Steve, their lovingly devoted daughter Sophie, and their 41-year-old faithful German Shepherd, Max.
Sophie Austin is sort of a sad soul, running a small-time mystery shopping operation out of her deceased grandparents’ ranch near Ojai, California. Most of you will remember her mother Jaime Sommers-Austin and her father Steve Austin. Two separate and highly acclaimed documentary series chronicled their lives in the mid-70’s, “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman.”
You’ll recall that both documentaries ended their broadcast runs with the 1978-79 season, due primarily to the fact that the series documenting Steve was produced by ABC, but NBC had bought the rights to Jaime’s saga. The repeated intersections of their individual OSI assignments caused irreconcilable inter-network conflicts, and the production squabbles began to interfere with Steve and Jaime’s work in saving the world. It is unlikely that the programs’ contracts would have been renewed anyway, as 1979 brought with it three new documentary series that sadly seemed to captivate America’s imagination more greatly than the upright, responsible, patriotic and mostly platonic lives of public service as lived by Steve and Jaime.
The first documentary that usurped Sophie’s parents (Remember Sophie? We’ll get back to her soon enough…) was the Dixie-reviving, denim short-shorts fashion trend-setting, battle flag waving, car-window-entry fad establishing “Dukes of Hazard.” The second documentary begun in 1979 was the gritty expose of real life in an all-girls boarding school, “Facts of Life.” Of course the prosthetic nail in Jaime and Steve’s TV coffin was the much hotter love-interest crime solving duo found in “Hart to Hart,” as camera crews followed Jonathan and Jennifer around the globe in their on-the-job learning of the detective trade.
Anyway, for several years after being freed of their tag-along production crews, Jaime and Steve maintained their friendship and continued their work with OSI, fighting off Fembots and thwarting countless mind-control world domination schemes by Fortress. We are all unknowingly but forever indebted to their efforts to make the world a safer place.
Fast-forward a decade, though, and you may recall three movies featuring the bionic couple in ’87, ’89, and ’94. Sadly, due to the post-Reagan era military and intelligence drawdowns, government funding was not renewed for the maintenance of Jaime and Steve’s many prosthetic needs. It is a sad commentary upon contemporary social values that their three big-screen documentary films were entered into out of abject desperation for paying for calibration and repairs to their bionic body parts. We, the public, may have thought it was all just a nostalgic feel-good culmination of the careers of two faithful public servants, but plain and simple, Steve and Jaime were just trying to make ends meet.
Still, who could forget the international headline grabbing final scene of their third and final documentary, filmed in 1993 but released in 1994. At long last, Jaime and Steve tied the knot… better, faster and stronger than we could ever have imagined. Little did we know, however, that it was a marriage of necessity, for even while the bride leapt 60 feet down the aisle in one bound, Jaime was with child. Steve’s famous one handed hoisting of a divan to catch his bride in mid-air was as much obstetrician’s orders as it was bionic showmanship.
And the child that Jaime Sommers, now Jaime Sommers-Austin was carrying as she leapt down the aisle? That’s right. Sophie Austin.
Jaime and Steve are now in their 70’s. Their evil-thwarting days are past. The government has put them out to pasture, and consequently their parts have worn and rusted. The three of them live together with Maximillion (yes, the bionic dog lives on… apparently the dog has private patrons who keep replacing canine parts while Steve and Jaime rust away) on the ranch that belonged to Jaime’s mother and step-father near the Air Force base where Jaime once taught.
Sophie helps the best that she can. Devoid of bionics of her own (apparently bionic powers are not procreatively transmitted, no matter how bionic the parts engaged in coital union), Sophie is relegated to pity-work arranged through the machinations of OSI. She has the mystery shopping contract for all the Army and Air Force Exchanges throughout the continental U.S.
Which brings us to the OP’s email in question. Is it legit? Yes, BUT… you need access to military bases in order to complete any assignments for Sophie. She neglects to mention that in her recruiting emails. Her bad grammar and pseudo-cryptographic contact info collection form are simply evidence of her having missed a formal primary education due to her parents’ constant crime-fighting travels and her primary care-giving grandparents declining mental acuity and their eventual accidental death (they wandered onto the missile testing range of the neighboring AF base while out for a Sunday stroll) in 2004 when Sophie was only ten years old.
So, would I recommend shopping for Sophie Austin through MS-Recruitment? I’d have to say no, but it is not due to any sort of fraud or malicious intent on Sophie’s part. It’s just that, while she really does intend to pay $200 per visit (if you can get on base), she forgets that $200 is what she is being paid per month for weekly visits. Then she thinks nothing of splitting it four ways, $50 for you (total payment for four weekly visits, i.e. $12.50 per visit), $50 for herself, $50 for her mom and $50 for her dad, calling it simply “fair” and really meaning that, not saying it as a justification for her breaching your contract.
Now, while I would not recommend shopping for her, I would heartily recommend that you meaningfully support her and her broken-bionic yet perpetually heroic parents (and their dog… don’t forget Max). To do so, simply send to me the same information that Sophie is requesting in her email, along with your checking account number, routing number, social security number, and your mother’s maiden name. Let me know how much you’d like to contribute towards the “Six Million Dollar Relief Fund,” and I’ll take care of transferring the funds for you. Please note, that since this is not a 501(c)(3) charity, you cannot legally claim this as a deduction on your federal income tax. However, I know that the satisfaction that you will receive from helping poor Sophie and her real American hero parents (and their dog, please remember the dog) will more than make up for the lost charitable deduction.
Thank you for your time and effort in reading this admittedly lengthy story behind the email. I look forward to receiving your contributions in support of Jaime, Steve, their lovingly devoted daughter Sophie, and their 41-year-old faithful German Shepherd, Max.
OMG elcarev68 .....you've done it again!! I can't breath, I fell off the couch hahahahahahahahaaaaa!
Shopping Central Jersey Shoreline. WHAT? I'm an adult?! When did this happen?! How do I make it stop?!
Hahaha what did I just read?! Thank you for your input. 
And no contributions will be coming from me, ha!
And no contributions will be coming from me, ha!
The story was on fire. It made me almost choke and spew my drink at the same time.
I certainly support the cause of the Austin family, but I cannot support these poorly written phishing emails. I've gotten a few myself, some for mystery shopping and some for other "work from home jobs".
Spammers phishers & trolls lurk in this forum. It is public forum that accepts anyone who creates SN. They gather info. some can get email addresses, phone #s & real address. It just depends on how hard they want to work at it, Some people make it real easy for them.
mkkp it is a coincidence you got this e-mail after signing up with mystery shopping companies. They got your e-mail the same way all of the other scammers d. It is an old and common scam. Ive had one of those e-mails and received the bogus cheques in the mail. Years ago the police warned about it on the radio and in the paper. There is a poster about this scam at the local post office right now.
take everyones advise and do not waste your time there are lots of true genuine companies out there and no one pays that kind of money. you said it your self appears to good to be true .
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