I'll have been a shopper for 5 years this September. I've given some friends the names of the "usual" mystery shop companies. Others have overheard me while taking a call from a scheduler with last minute assignments and bonus pay... As I usually negotiate the fees, they hear me discuss the amounts and almost always ask, "Where do I sign-up to get that kind of pay?!" ???? Deep down, I'm quite confident most people are the kind who, once they hear mystery or secret shop, assume its "get paid to eat at restaurants" and write a quick yelp-style review. If only...
About 2 months ago, my girlfriend's brother and I started to chat about mystery shopping. He said, "Yeah, I'm going to be having surgery here in acouple weeks and we need something to pay the bills." I gave him the name some MS companies. I cautioned him that most MS companies pay cycle is 30-60 days after a successful shop is completed, that there are literally hundreds of legit MS companies out there, each with their own clients, as well as writing requirements, depth of detail level, etc? Told him he'd have to sign-up with as many as he could before he could grasp the overview of what shops exist and which ones you think would be worthwhile. Cautioned him to "never pay upfront to be a mystery shopper" a/k/a avoid scams.
To this day, I don't think he's signed up for a single company, but he'll ask me about it again in the future... Why? Because he has before. They seemingly want the money, but don't want to put forth the time and effort into it that shopping requires to learn. My time is valuable... I have no problem helping someone learn if they're willing to put in the energy and ask questions, but I'm only willing to "give a hand-up, not a hand-out."