I am a bit suspicious....and I have never been a mystery shopper. But, I got an email from one of the several jobs that I had applied for:

Dear CSR,

Our Human Resources Dept. received your application to the Customer Service job opening posted on Careerbuilder dated from 2nd to 4th September, 2009.

What We Do?
Check Mark, Inc. specializes in Customer Service Evaluations and analysis. What does that mean? Quite simply, our role is to assess how well companies are performing in their customer's eyes. We provide a snapshot of your customer's experience and then give you the facts to create a stronger customer relationship, enabling you to maintain and expand your customer base.

Our philosophy is "Improving customer service is the key to increasing sales and profits." Check Mark, Inc. believes in building relationships with customers as we're helping companies build relationships with you. We operate on three basic principles: Excellence in Service, Reliability in Performance and Loyalty to our Customers. Our customers tell us one of the most notable things about Check Mark, Inc. is our personal approach. We believe in a great deal of interaction in all stages of our projects. After all, we're here to help you ---- and we take that very personally.

Examples of details you would forward to us are
1) How long it took you to get services.
2) Intelligence of the attendant.
3) Customer Service Professionalism.
4) Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant, to see how they react to clients whey they get tensed.

Your Identity would be kept confidential, you'll be paid for every duty you carry out and bonus on your transportation allowance. Funds will be given to you to perform your duties in a wide variety of shops, stores, restaurants and services in your area. No commitment is made on this job because it has flexible hours as it suits you.

If you are interested in this position, fill out the information requested below, so you could receive the necessary funds to perform your evaluation/survey.

Your Name (As Should Appear on Payment):
Home Address(No P.O Box):.........
City:...............................
State:.............................
Zip Code:................
Home phone:....................
Cell phone:.......................
Email:...............................
Your Occupation(or NA):............
Cities & Towns you are willing to visit (please don't give us county names!):...................
Choose one from the following for your evaluation.
1 Wal-Mart,
2 Restaurant

Choose one from the following for your survey.
1 Western Union
2 Money Gram

You'll be paid to shop and dine out-plus, you can also get free meals, free merchandise, free services, free entertainment, free travel and more. Great pay, fun work, flexible schedules. No experience required. If you can shop-you are qualified!

A swift response, which has the information requested above and a confirmation that you have accepted the job offer will be greatly appreciated. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards,
John Fisher
Check Mark Inc.
Zephyr Cove, NV 89448
Tel.: 914-233-3804

___

Not very comfortable about the money order payments...just seems a bit fishy to me. Has anyone here had experience with Check Mark, Inc? Any information would be appreciated.

It is a scam. There is a real MSC called this, but they would require that you apply to them first. This scam is hitting almost every MSC.

...thats what i figured....seems thats all who is replying to me these days...scammers...really irritating...thanx dee!

Why not apply to the company's listed here and start to check their job boards?

I think as a rule of thumb, any offer that says they will give you funds up front is a scam. No MSC pay up front. Even if the names sound familiar and reputable, if they offer to give you money before you do the job, they are scammers!

also, if you read that letter there are some really strange syntax errors that make it readily apparant that the author is not entirely comfortable with "American" English.

Maybe it's just me, but that letter just didn't scream "written in Nevada", (where although it is irrelevant, I find it fascinating that all mystery shoppers are required to be licensed Private Investigators incidentally,)

And what tools, exactly, are they suggesting you use, to measure an attendant's intelligence?

Seriously, I registered with CareerBuilder a few years back, and had to shut down that email address, because it became so flooded with spam that it became unusable. And I was getting phone calls from offshore companies trying to get me to come in for phantom interviews for bogus jobs. I had to change my phone number, which is a really rough thing to have to do when you are in the middle of a job search.

I understand the problem JayTee. We aren't sure exactly who my significant other signed up with but suddenly his credit card is flooded with 'credit protection' 'internet information' and other charges he never signed up for. I think he probably gave information about his CC in connection with a 'job site' but can't tell for sure. We just had him change his CC account number and recently changed our phone number (different reason, but the same net effect of getting them off the line all hours of the day and night despite the 'no call' list).

As for CheckMark, recent visits to their legitimate website have not convinced me that they are still active. There was a big brouhaha with them a few years back as the partners in the company split and went their separate ways. One partner started Strategic Reflections, the other found their checks to shoppers as payment for fees and reimbursements turn to rubber. A whole lot of shoppers were hurt. Last I heard, shoppers had gotten paid but not reimbursed for the rubber check fees from their bank and/or any subsequent rubber based on assuming the checks had been good in the first place. CheckMark offered to send letters for shoppers to present to their bank indicating it was not the shopper's fault that the CheckMark check bounced and 'please' back out any rubberized charges. Fat chance . . .

It's very simple. Payment with money order = scam.

Not to mention I would never, ever, imagine a real MSC to ask us to "upset the attendant". Requests, yes. Upset? No way.

They go by many names:csrresearch,influenceinc,ect...Anyone asking you to cash a check to evaluate a cash transfer is someone trying to scam you.Popular scam > They send a cashiers check from a ficticious company,say for $2000.00,they tell you to take your cut,say $300.00 out of that and send the balance to a disclosed location through Western Union or more popular Moneygram.Then in two weeks or so when the results of the rubber check come back to the bank,where you cashed the check,the authorities are at your door looking for you to cover the check ($2000.00).Meaning you got scammed for $1700.00.These bogus offers come in email,newspapers and solicited mail.Just beware...no recourse sending cash!