$1 to create a Gmail account?

Just got email invite from a particular MSC asking the shopper to create a Gmail account with a fictional first & last name, and then give the MSC the username and password for the Gmail account. Payment is $1. Seems kinda shady, what would the purpose be for needing all these fake accounts?

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I thought the exact same thing: how will the email address be used?

It definitely looks sketchy.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

I accepted one of the shops. I did not see anything sketchy about it. If the company needed a large number of Gmail addresses, it was probably cheaper, faster, and easier to pay shoppers to do it for $1 per account.

How are they going to use the email addresses?

A client could have hired the MSC to get shoppers to do this. The client is actually a scammer/phisher/spoofer and now has hundreds of email addresses at their disposal.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

"...and then give the MSC the username and password for the Gmail account. Payment is $1..."

Never, ever associate a payment with an email account and on top of that you GIVE someone else the password? Absolutely, positively NOT!

If anyone does this, they deserve to be taken.

Immediately came here to see whats up after reading that emaiI. It's very sketchy and shady and against Google TOS.

"...not allowed to create Gmail accounts by automated means or buy, sell, trade, or re-sell Gmail accounts to others."

[www.google.com]

Seriously? Are they for REAL?! I thought her email addy had been hijacked. Email mentions "Business Type/Name: Employment Application".

Is there a new season of American Idol starting soon???? Isn’t it something like 10 votes per email address????
On a serious not….. NO GOOD CAN COME FROM THIS!!!!!!!
I noticed over half the assignments are already taken. A Dollar??? Really??

So, you don't use PayPal?

I seriously doubt the MSC will be sending payment to anything associated with the new Gmail account. For one thing, no payment method is set up for the new account.

@maverick1 wrote:

"...and then give the MSC the username and password for the Gmail account. Payment is $1..."

Never, ever associate a payment with an email account and on top of that you GIVE someone else the password? Absolutely, positively NOT!

If anyone does this, they deserve to be taken.

Why on earth would a scammer/phisher/spoofer pay an MSC to do this when there are much cheaper and less traceable ways (such as using bots or cheap labor overseas)?

@HonnyBrown wrote:

How are they going to use the email addresses?

A client could have hired the MSC to get shoppers to do this. The client is actually a scammer/phisher/spoofer and now has hundreds of email addresses at their disposal.

Maybe the MS company should explain, especially since it seems to violate Google's T of S.

I read this thread this morning when it was still new. For some reason my eyes read $10. I guess it is impossible for my brain to comprehend $1 for any shop. I just saw the email from the msc offering this in my acct and it said $1. I seriously thought this must be a typo. Went back to the forum and saw $1 was not a typo. Just my brain translated it into a typo.
I am not nearly as fast as many of you are. So I imagine it might be at least 10 minutes to collect and read the information about how and what to do and then set up the acct and later take it down, check on some website to see if I actually got paid. etc. etc. So if I did this consistently all day long at $1 a pop with no time in between to find new $1 shops I would earn $6 an hour. I refer those of you who can afford to work for this amt to the other thread about tipping. $6 an hour workers deserve tips!

I'm sure you'll let us know when your fake email appears in your spam folder telling you that you're the beneficiary of a gazillion dollars!

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

Why on earth would a scammer/phisher/spoofer pay an MSC to do this when there are much cheaper and less traceable ways (such as using bots or cheap labor overseas)?

@HonnyBrown wrote:

How are they going to use the email addresses?

A client could have hired the MSC to get shoppers to do this. The client is actually a scammer/phisher/spoofer and now has hundreds of email addresses at their disposal.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Not bloody likely!

Wouldn't it be funny if Google were the client?

@HonnyBrown wrote:

I'm sure you'll let us know when your fake email appears in your spam folder telling you that you're the beneficiary of a gazillion dollars!

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

Why on earth would a scammer/phisher/spoofer pay an MSC to do this when there are much cheaper and less traceable ways (such as using bots or cheap labor overseas)?

@HonnyBrown wrote:

How are they going to use the email addresses?

A client could have hired the MSC to get shoppers to do this. The client is actually a scammer/phisher/spoofer and now has hundreds of email addresses at their disposal.

I wouldn't have done the shop for $1 except I knew I could create a new Gmail account extremely fast. I have been creating new accounts for years for another MS project. It took me less than 5 minutes total to create an account and file my report.

Unless I totally misunderstood the project, I expect to be paid by the MSC the way it usually pays me. In other words, there is no website to check.

@sandyf wrote:

I read this thread this morning when it was still new. For some reason my eyes read $10. I guess it is impossible for my brain to comprehend $1 for any shop. I just saw the email from the msc offering this in my acct and it said $1. I seriously thought this must be a typo. Went back to the forum and saw $1 was not a typo. Just my brain translated it into a typo.
I am not nearly as fast as many of you are. So I imagine it might be at least 10 minutes to collect and read the information about how and what to do and then set up the acct and later take it down, check on some website to see if I actually got paid. etc. etc. So if I did this consistently all day long at $1 a pop with no time in between to find new $1 shops I would earn $6 an hour. I refer those of you who can afford to work for this amt to the other thread about tipping. $6 an hour workers deserve tips!

I sent the scheduler an email asking how the emails would be used.

@Susan L. wrote:

Maybe the MS company should explain, especially since it seems to violate Google's T of S.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Creating a Gmail account "with a fictional first name and last name" that will be used for "business/employment purposes". This MSC twitter account mentions their business association with fast food, #RestaurantNews, #SupplyChain, #StaffingShortages,...

So $1.00 for a U.S., a manually created gmail account (that's possibly verified via your phone number) with a fake first and last name that will be used for filling out employment applications at these restaurant's with staffing shortages? ????

This MSC asks us to intentionally violate another company's TOS by selling them an email account, with a fictional name, that'll be used for who knows what? For me, it doesn't sound like ethical business practices. And how can I trust them with all my nonfictional personal info? If this is a Google approved legitimate job they should've mentioned it.

I needed to know how it would be used ahead of time. They have our actual email and phone number. Can't the accounts be linked. What if they need to reset the password or do something that violates TOS. How would that affect the person who set it up?

I am not at all certain their intentions are honorable with this one. In fact, I am pretty sure they aren't. I passed. I have no interest whatsoever in facilitating online scams. I am surprised the company even took the assignment.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
"Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
-- Abraham Lincoln

I have been rendered so hyperskepticynical by recent rl events that I coined a new word and opted out of this opportunity.

OTOH, in the past I have used fake names and fake addys for projects. Just now, I use my name, fake addys from which project personnel automatically receive any e-mail, and my real mailing address for actual stuff. These projects pay/paid more than one dollar.

Gardening is how I relax. It is another form of creating and playing with colors. - Oscar de la Renta

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2021 12:01AM by Shop-et-al.

Should this be a Youtube video?

What is the name of the MS company? You tell us since you havent named the client.

You CAN tell us-- sorry about my grammar.

I don't know what the deal is here, but I know that the addresses are going to be fake, and anything that comes to them is going to be answered by the joker who's behind this thing. For me, this is as hard a pass as I can remember.

Why take this shop at the base rate. Wait until it is highly bonused.
Coming soon an email with the headline, "Urgent! $0.25 bonus. Must be done today." So, hold out everyone.

@Sandyf.....Clarification.... First, Rub both your eyes.... The bonus is 25 cents, not 25 dollars. .... Just to be clear

I wasn't concerned about how it would be used--since I'd never do this for $1.

My first thought was, "A dollar?" Good thing I didn't have coffee in my mouth at the time; it would have been all over my keyboard.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I did it. It took me about 3 minutes, so about $20 per hour. Ridiculously easy report. I later got an email telling me the password had been changed on the account. So, they used it. It is a reputable MSC. I would have done more, but it was limited to just one. When I looked later, they were almost all gone. There had been dozens and dozens available.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Is this one of the 15 most discussed MSCs? Not interested in the job, just curious why I didn't get the email. I feel so left out! But maybe I deleted it without opening.

I just looked at the list of 15 most discussed MSCs. Many (I'd say about a quarter) of the companies on the top 15 list are either out of business, have merged, or are now relatively inactive. I don't think the count of discussions for those fifteen or the ones lower down has been updated in years.

The MSC that had this shop is the result of the merger of 3 (I think) companies about 5 years ago. With its current name, it does not appear anywhere on the list. However, shops from this MSC are often discussed here.

I just picked one of my favorites (ath Power, not the MSC under discussion here) and it is in the list at the bottom with 150 discussions, but if you click on it, there are now 173 discussions which would easily place it among the Top 15. I am beginning to understand the frustration of new shoppers when we tell them to sign up with the Top 15 and about 1/4 of them no longer even exist.

@sestrahelena wrote:

Is this one of the 15 most discussed MSCs? Not interested in the job, just curious why I didn't get the email. I feel so left out! But maybe I deleted it without opening.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Surely they have enough schedulers to sit for a few hours and set up their own Gmail accounts. They had time to change the passwords. Is someone attempting to do something undetected by Google?

@1forum1 wrote:

Why take this shop at the base rate. Wait until it is highly bonused.
Coming soon an email with the headline, "Urgent! $0.25 bonus. Must be done today." So, hold out everyone.

@Sandyf.....Clarification.... First, Rub both your eyes.... The bonus is 25 cents, not 25 dollars. .... Just to be clear

1forum1, the laugh I got out of your post is worth a lot more than the $1 they are paying. So I found this shop to be well worth the time I put into reading about it.

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