Isaiah, I'm not promoting Shadow Shopper in any way, but I don't quite understand your vehement postings against it. The site itself isn't a scam. As I agreed in another thread, yes, It's foolish to pay money to see MS opportunities that we can find through free venues. But people pay money all the time for services they could locate on their own for free. And a person isn't forced to pay; they have a free "membership." It may not be much good, but they have it. As others have said, there seems to be nothing illegal about it. And I'm not sure there's even anything unethical, at least as far as what Shadow Shopper itself is doing.
Scammers use Shadow Shopper to troll for victims. That's where the illegality and unethical use of shopper information is. But how is that any different from other online venues of this type? Even if the MSPA had any kind of authority over sites like this, exactly what could they "get" SS on?
Someone mentioned Craigslist, a huge venue for scammers to troll. But it's legitimate. Then there are the employment portals that scammers mine for information. Many of these give you basic access for free, but have a paid membership for full access. Or, you get basic listings without having to fully register, but if you want full access, you have to give them all your info. I've used some of these sites (e.g., Career Builder, Indeed, etc.). They're legitimate, but fertile ground for scammers. I get numerous offers per week for jobs where I can "work at home and get paid $72,000 yearly for part-time work processing payments." People who fall for that deserve what they get; it's not the fault of the portal site.
I had a free membership with SS, and there were "real" job "opportunities" fully posted there. But they were mostly things like giving out samples in grocery stores and doing spot inventory work. I wasn't interested in those, and I knew enough to not fall for the paid membership. But I did get my first mystery-shopping opportunity through my registration there. An MSC found my profile and called me. That's how I got started in this business.
So my experience may be different than that of many others, but objectively speaking, I still don't see what SS is doing that's actually illegal or "wrong." All of these sites probably should figure out how to better monitor for scammers, but I don't know how difficult it is to do that.
The people who really need to be stopped are the scammers themselves.
I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 02:10PM by BirdyC.