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Does anyone use fake names? If so, how do you go about it?

April 23, 2026 04:26AM
I've been doing some gym visits of different kinds and two of them were owned by the same person - not just the same franchise, but the same person owned two different franchise stores, with the same staff working at both. I went to the two gyms one day after each other and used my real name and real address, and the second one were absolutely perfect, suspiciously-so, almost like the first one told the second one that I was a mystery shopper.

Because of that, and in consultation with the mystery shopping company, I have decided that for my next one I am going to use a fake name and fake address, but my real phone number, but I'm not sure how to go about it.

I thought that I could base it on celebrities and then change it a bit, but then what if I forget what my fake name is? What if they call me and I answer the phone with my actual name? Well, I usually just say "Hello" as I get so many spammers.

Does anyone use fake names? How do you go about doing it?
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April 23, 2026 04:47AM
Planet Fitness shops in the US require the use of your real name. Due to insurance liability, they can ask for your driver's license. Since you don't know in advance if they will, you need to start with your real name. The MSC that shops them requires that you use your real name.

Edited to add that my reply refers to the US.

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


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2026 04:48AM by myst4au.
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April 23, 2026 06:15AM
nope, I use my own name, every day, all of the time. If I can't, I can't do the shop. I'm a terrible liar.
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April 23, 2026 11:50AM
So I should use my real name? Okay.
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April 23, 2026 02:50PM
I'd use the name of someone I know rather than creating one. IMO, that's easier to remember. An elderly relative is ideal since they aren't likely to pop into the gym and maybe the comedy associated with the visualization of them doing exactly that will help you remember who you picked?
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April 23, 2026 02:52PM
maybe the name of your sister or mom.
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April 23, 2026 09:29PM
I would go through the alphabet, A to Z, with first names. I would use my own surname or those of other relatives.

Be careful using fake names or the names of deceased family for your loved ones on assisted living/memory care shops. The stakes are high--the company is looking for residents from whom they're expecting to receive $10,000 to $20,000 or more per month. So they're likely to do a Google search for any name you give--yours and your loved one's.
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April 23, 2026 10:45PM
OZ, I have to ask.. Do you understand that the greatest portion of the folks on this forum (as in 90% of us) are in the USA? And we have zero knowledge of how or who to shop for or mystery shopping companies in Australia.
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April 23, 2026 11:08PM
There is one bank shop where I have to use a fake name every time (it’s just an inquiry about accounts, no need to show ID). For those I have been going through the alphabet for last names - and stick to the same letter for each round with variations of my first name or random first names. I also do assisted living comparison shops that require the same though not as many. My last name is a color with an ending. I have used different ending or a different color or a different color with a different ending combination.
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April 23, 2026 11:13PM
There is one bank shop where I have to use a fake name every time (it’s just an inquiry about accounts, no need to show ID). For those I have been going through the alphabet for last names - and stick to the same letter for each round with variations of my first name or random first names. I also do assisted living comparison shops that require the same though not as many. My last name is a color with an ending (“berg”). I have a used different ending or a different color without ending, or a different color with a different ending combination.
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April 24, 2026 12:11AM
My earlier answer related to the requirements of a specific fitness chain. There are many shops that I do where the MSC requires a different name each time/location. I use my college roommate's name and names of classmates. All names thst I am used to hearing.

Shopping South Jersey, Southeast Pennsylvania, and Delaware above the canal since 2008
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April 24, 2026 01:51AM
Since Oliver Clothesoff and Seamore Buttz is taken, I am going to use Grant Wood.
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April 24, 2026 03:16AM
I use a name similar to mine that folks sometimes mistakenly use. Once I said Rhona and forgot until I showed banker my id showing I am Rho. I must have turned bright red before ending the shop ASAP. Having lived in the same town 40 years I hesitate to use a fake name because I worry someone I know will walk into the store.

Using a real phone # is no problem if your voice mail msg. doesn't use any names.
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April 24, 2026 03:33AM
They've said that I don't need to use a fake name for the next 7 gym visits at 3 different gyms, as they are owned by different people. But I will need to use a fake address for 2 of them that are nowhere near any workplaces. For the others, I can just say that I work nearby.
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April 27, 2026 01:50PM
But such ms disapeared a while ago. The bank was blended with anothrer one.

Shopping Eastern Pennsylvania since 2009
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April 30, 2026 01:39PM
Doing apartments for EPMS can be challenging, as many of their clients maintain a database and you are required to use a different name if still in rotation, but you have to provide ID to tour the property.

I have a variation of my first name that I use, and I have three drawn from my middle name, so I can present 5 first names that will correlate with my license.

Of course I've never been called on it, as most agents will just verify by looking at the picture, if that.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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April 30, 2026 01:44PM
@awesomecool3 wrote:

Since Oliver Clothesoff and Seamore Buttz is taken, I am going to use Grant Wood.

That first one is new to me. :-D

I just did a consistently funky Phillips 66 shop. Tons of handwritten signs and a MID that has one side almost totally obscured, and the hi-rise sign is beyond faded.

But I always look forward to doing it because the employees all have fake name tags, and it's always fun to see what they've come up with.

My most recent clerk was Chris P Bacon, and of course I chuckled as I input the full name into the report.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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May 03, 2026 04:30PM
When I' was doing a lot of bank jobs - shops, I always used a fake name. Sometimes, I used interesting circumstances, because it should make no difference.
I've used characters from Anne Rice novels or rock stars names, sometimes even classical music names.

When I was Foxchase Mozart, I needed the information for my great uncle Wolfhard.
For Marchent Nideck, I came in for my Uncle Felix. He was traveling in Paris with my friend Reuben.
Once I was Bianca Jagger.
I once told them my name was Pat Benatar - that one really threw them off their game.
During a particularly long wait and subsequent talk with a banker, I told them my girlfriend who was expecting and near her due date had asked me to stop in and ask about banking information. The banker looked at me quizzically I think. No need to figure that out.
I once came in and said I was Jane Birkin and was asking about information for my boyfriend Serge Gainsbourg.

Why not have some fun.
Afterall, when we do those shops, are we not actors playing a part?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2026 04:32PM by French Farmer.
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May 06, 2026 12:55PM
@ozshopper wrote:

I've been doing some gym visits of different kinds and two of them were owned by the same person - not just the same franchise, but the same person owned two different franchise stores, with the same staff working at both. I went to the two gyms one day after each other and used my real name and real address, and the second one were absolutely perfect, suspiciously-so, almost like the first one told the second one that I was a mystery shopper.

Because of that, and in consultation with the mystery shopping company, I have decided that for my next one I am going to use a fake name and fake address, but my real phone number, but I'm not sure how to go about it.

I thought that I could base it on celebrities and then change it a bit, but then what if I forget what my fake name is? What if they call me and I answer the phone with my actual name? Well, I usually just say "Hello" as I get so many spammers.

Does anyone use fake names? How do you go about doing it?

Sure all the time. I have a somewhat sophisticated system of doing it. If you look on IMDB (Internet movie data base) and find a behind the camera slot--I use costume designer. But you can use anyone. The key is to make it a believeable name without the recognition factor.

So that gives me the name.

Then I take the release date of the movie. That gives me the birth date.

Pick movies from the 1980’s or 1990’s of course.

Then take the first initial, last name, and the month/year of birth and make a google e-mail address.

Ajohnstone487 at gmail for example.
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May 06, 2026 01:15PM
I did bank compliance shops that required the use of a fake name. I constructed a profile for 5 fake IDs. Different phone numbers, emails, addresses, etc. For me it wasn't very difficult. I should have been an actor, which in the words of the famed actor Ice T, acting is the ability to lie convincingly.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
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May 06, 2026 01:15PM
I did bank compliance shops that required the use of a fake name. I constructed a profile for 5 fake IDs. Different phone numbers, emails, addresses, etc. For me it wasn't very difficult. I should have been an actor, which in the words of the famed actor Ice T, acting is the ability to lie convincingly.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
Reply
May 06, 2026 01:16PM
I did bank compliance shops that required the use of a fake name. I constructed a profile for 5 fake IDs. Different phone numbers, emails, addresses, etc. For me it wasn't very difficult. I should have been an actor, which in the words of the famed actor Ice T, acting is the ability to lie convincingly.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
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May 06, 2026 01:29PM
@whosear wrote:

I did bank compliance shops that required the use of a fake name. I constructed a profile for 5 fake IDs. Different phone numbers, emails, addresses, etc. For me it wasn't very difficult. I should have been an actor, which in the words of the famed actor Ice T, acting is the ability to lie convincingly.

Awesome. You wrote the same thing 3 times though.
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May 08, 2026 03:07AM
Using aliases a part of mystery shopping.

I've done hundreds of onsite shops using aliases, usually so that I can shop the same company multiple times.

If you are shopping a client that requires an ID, then you are pretty much stuck with using your real info and may only be able to do them once a year, once every 2-3 years, or once in a lifetime.

A good MSC will outline if you need to use an alias or not in their guidelines and if needed, ask what their rotations are for that client so you know how often you can shop that client.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2026 03:09AM by jdyeah.
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May 09, 2026 10:35PM
@jdyeah wrote:


If you are shopping a client that requires an ID, then you are pretty much stuck with using your real info and may only be able to do them once a year, once every 2-3 years, or once in a lifetime.

I'm lucky in that I have a first name with lots of accepted nicknames (think something like "Elizabeth" who can be Liz, Beth, Liza, Betsy, etc) and a last name that people spell wrong ALL the time anyway, with an extra letter (the more common way), so, sometimes I'll use the misspelling when filling out info, etc., and no one has ever noticed that extra letter isn't on my ID.
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May 17, 2026 12:58PM
Came across another fake name tag on a recent Green Dino visit: Luna C

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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May 18, 2026 01:33AM
I forgot what board game we had when I was a kid but there were all of these villains who you were trying to catch or whatever. All of them had odd names.

Sam Pull
Gale Force
Barb Wire
Justin Credible

-----

One of my favorite (and sometimes the only enjoyable) parts of listening to CarTalk on NPR was their "credits"

The Russian cab driver was Pickeyp Andropov
The Egyptian Elvis Impersonator was Amhal Shukup
The head of their intelligence division was Donatella Nobody
The seat cushion inspector was Mike Easter
The complaint department was headed up by Heywood U. Buzoff.

Anyway....
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May 18, 2026 01:55AM
I do a lot of new home shops so I need an alias for everyone. I downloaded the MLB rooster for first basemen into an Excel spreadsheet. I just go down the line for each new one that I need.
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May 18, 2026 12:47PM
^^^^^ That Matt Olson is quite the mystery shopper, so I hear.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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