Has anyone ever heard of the company, My excellent shopper? My State Farm agent's LinkedIn account was hacked and I received a message to sign up to become a mystery shopper. The role suits me great, but I'm not getting a good feeling from this company. The contact numbers are voicemails. No one calls back. I just received a text from a Mr. John stating I have an assignment coming via the USPS. Any help would be appreciated!

An assignment through USPS?
I bet that it will include a check for a large sum of money that you are expected to deposit, withdrawing some and sending the withdrawal somewhere...

That is a total and complete scam. The check will bounce, but not until after you send the money. The bank will then slap you with a fee for depositing a bad check - plus any overdraft fees you incur. Do NOT deposit the check. Turn it over to the bank or police. Or simply destroy it.

You can find a list of REAL mystery shopping companies linked at the bottom of this page.

Legitimate mystery shopping companies rarely will solicit for people to become a shopper (unless the person is already a shopper and was referred to by a scheduler or other MSC). How it works: you go to the MSCs website, you sign up, you are given a user name and you choose a password, and they either have a job board showing available shops or they send out emails with available shops and you sign up for them. Then, you can see the guidelines and report form on their website. You report the shop after logging into the website with your assigned user name and password. Rarely is anything done via mail. Payment for a shop arrives weeks later after the shop has been submitted on the website.

There is a very common scam going on that has been going on for years where the scammers send a counterfeit check or money order to a person out of the blue and asks them to deposit the money, keep a percentage of it, and send the rest to them via money wire (or sometimes the person purchases gift cards and takes photos of them or sends the gift cards to the scammers). At first the bank doesn't realize that the check is fake, but after about 10 days when it doesn't clear the bank it was drawn on, the person who got scammed is out a large sum of money. If you receive a check in the mail, turn it over to the postmaster at your post office as it is mail fraud.

Thanks everyone. It seems as if you're correct. I will report this to the attorney general and the BBB. Someone that isn't a skeptic will be fooled as their grammatical skills are top notch which is not the norm for scams in the US. I am very interested in supplementing my income as my daughter is in grad school and the extra income would be nice. If anyone has any ideas on how I could get in the door with a reputable company, please let me know. Thanks for the help!

Hi @Ebrdaugherty
You are doing the right thing by looking for a reputable company. Consider BARE International. BARE has a solid industry reputation, celebrating more than 30 years in business and is known for its credibility, stability, and variety of opportunities.

As an Evaluator for BARE International, you become a valuable part of providing game-changing insights to our clients. You can have an impact on how our clients provide customer service and make business decisions. The same ethical standards we uphold when designing, implementing, and analyzing research strategies for our clients also applies to you as one of our Evaluators. We strive to create opportunities as worthwhile to you as your work is to us.

6 Benefits of Being a BARE Evaluator
1). Extra Income - Earn with our transparent evaluation system that helps you improve your work and ensures fair, democratic scheduling.
2) Fun Work - Learning more about interesting products and brands is fun, and helping companies make a difference is truly rewarding.
3) Feel Valued - With competition increasing daily, you’ll be a valuable asset to companies looking to improve customer experience.
4) Fair Pay - BARE ensures reasonable compensation and maintains secure and accurate financial control systems.
5) Flexible Hours - Enjoy less stringent validation processes and full control over dates, deadlines, payments and workload.
6) Professional Reputation - BARE has a solid industry reputation, celebrating 30 years in business and is known for its credibility, stability, and variety of opportunities.

You can become an Evaluator of BARE here: [www.bareinternational.com]

Feel free to message me if you need anything!
Best,
Lisa Shapiro

Hello @Ebrdaugherty
You are doing the right thing by looking for a reputable company. Consider BARE International. BARE has a solid industry reputation, celebrating more than 30 years in business and is known for its credibility, stability, and variety of opportunities.

As an Evaluator for BARE International, you become a valuable part of providing game-changing insights to our clients. You can have an impact on how our clients provide customer service and make business decisions. The same ethical standards we uphold when designing, implementing, and analyzing research strategies for our clients also applies to you as one of our Evaluators. We strive to create opportunities as worthwhile to you as your work is to us.

6 Benefits of Being a BARE Evaluator
1). Extra Income - Earn with our transparent evaluation system that helps you improve your work and ensures fair, democratic scheduling.
2) Fun Work - Learning more about interesting products and brands is fun, and helping companies make a difference is truly rewarding.
3) Feel Valued - With competition increasing daily, you’ll be a valuable asset to companies looking to improve customer experience.
4) Fair Pay - BARE ensures reasonable compensation and maintains secure and accurate financial control systems.
5) Flexible Hours - Enjoy less stringent validation processes and full control over dates, deadlines, payments and workload.
6) Professional Reputation - BARE has a solid industry reputation, celebrating 30 years in business and is known for its credibility, stability, and variety of opportunities.

You can become an Evaluator of BARE here: [www.bareinternational.com]

Feel free to message me if you need anything!
Best,
Lisa Shapiro

@Ebrdaugherty wrote:

Thanks everyone. It seems as if you're correct. I will report this to the attorney general and the BBB. Someone that isn't a skeptic will be fooled as their grammatical skills are top notch which is not the norm for scams in the US. I am very interested in supplementing my income as my daughter is in grad school and the extra income would be nice. If anyone has any ideas on how I could get in the door with a reputable company, please let me know. Thanks for the help!

I'm really glad you didn't fall for that scam.

Bare is a good solid company and I have been with them for about 15 years. They have a great staff and I enjoy doing their shops.

There is a link to a list at the bottom of this page for many MSCs that are legitimate. Most of us who have been doing this awhile are signed up with over 100. It's independent contractor work so you take what work is offered to you that you have time for. Keep in mind that not all companies will have shops immediately in your area. I suggest Marketforce as a good starter company, as they have a variety of shops and though the pay is not always the greatest, they pay on time and the reports are pretty easy. There is a link for new shoppers at the bottom of the page you should check out as well. Read, read, read! I wish you luck!

Thank you for the kind words! We are honored to have you as a trusted Evaluator!

@JASFLALMT wrote:

I'm really glad you didn't fall for that scam.

Bare is a good solid company and I have been with them for about 15 years. They have a great staff and I enjoy doing their shops.

There is a link to a list at the bottom of this page for many MSCs that are legitimate. Most of us who have been doing this awhile are signed up with over 100. It's independent contractor work so you take what work is offered to you that you have time for. Keep in mind that not all companies will have shops immediately in your area. I suggest Marketforce as a good starter company, as they have a variety of shops and though the pay is not always the greatest, they pay on time and the reports are pretty easy. There is a link for new shoppers at the bottom of the page you should check out as well. Read, read, read! I wish you luck!

Thank you! I live in Louisiana. I signed up with Bare, but found no jobs in my area. I will continue searching. I didn't enter my bank account informartion, or my social. I will do that later. Thanks for the help, Lisa!

As we have had our share of shoppers reaching out to us at Intouch Insight with this very scam being on their doorstep, we have an open and ongoing case currently with the FTC. I would suggest if you have some time to visit www.ftc.gov and report this as a consumer fraud complaint. The individual who was reaching out to interested shoppers using our company name and logo has now disappeared but may be using other company names, logos and changing his incentive amounts. It might be helpful to the issue if you report the situation with as much information, emails, phone numbers as possible to the FTC. You can also reach their headquarters directly at 1-202-326-2222.
If you are interested in participating in mystery shops on another platform that you might not be currently using, you can review our company details and our platform information at www.intouchinsight.com. There you will have the opportunity to work with over 20 different MSPA Americas members on one job board!

Good luck and thank you for reporting!

@Ebrdaugherty wrote:

Thanks everyone. It seems as if you're correct. I will report this to the attorney general and the BBB. Someone that isn't a skeptic will be fooled as their grammatical skills are top notch which is not the norm for scams in the US. I am very interested in supplementing my income as my daughter is in grad school and the extra income would be nice. If anyone has any ideas on how I could get in the door with a reputable company, please let me know. Thanks for the help!

Don't bother (sorry to put it this way) wasting the time of the AG and BBB. That scam is as old as the day is long on Summer Solstice. And odds are almost 1005 the people responsible for it live outside the USA. I have a Mailing Addy with a fake name attached to it. When I wanna "Mess" (G-rated version for the other 4 letter word I wanna use) with these "Brasspoles" I have them send something to my P.O. Box and then have fun. I pretend I cashed the check and then I send them my "report" but "accidentally" forget to put the Tracking Number. This gives me extra time for USPS to do something since I turn the entire envelope over to them if shipped that way. I also call the company in the Return Address and let them know they were hacked and someone sent something via their account. I know because if you put the Tracking Number in USPS you will see the shipment originated nowhere near the company's return address that is in the shipment.

I "Mess" with them and when I "do the report" (which I have on Word so I can copy/paste) I tell them how things went so well the woman who processed the transaction was hot, she hit on me and we had sex right there and how I hope that doesn't get her in trouble.

When they reply back saying I forgot the tracking number and could I send a pic of it that is when I "LOWER THE BOOM" on them. Every other word starts with "F" and ends in "er" or "ing" and I just trash them. It is a lot of fun. If anyone gets any stuff like this contact me via a PM and if you can Fwd it to me I'll let you follow along on the fun