Hi everyone! I am new here and wanted to ask some experienced mystery shoppers if an email I had received about a mystery shopping position was legitimate or not. I received an email a few days ago from a matthew johnson, with service research corp asking me to reply to his email by sending him the names and addresses of two companies he selected, so that he could mail me payment and I could get started. Initially when I received the email, I was trying to figure out which application he was talking about, because I couldn't remember every applying there, but thought maybe it was related to another research company that I had applied to. I didn't reply to him right away, because I was trying to figure it all out (because it all sounded pretty shady, but then again, I'm new to this kind of work) and that next morning I received a text message from this matthew johnson again, asking me to respond to the email, that way he could send payment and get me started. A few red flags to me were that a) the real seservice research corp spoke of a scam using their name b) the email he sent to me was csr@serviceresearchcor.com. and I looks like they just used that companys name and added a cor to the end of it (their website is www.serviceresearch.com). Is this a scam? I even tried to call the real service research corp to ask if matthew johnson was an employee of theirs and had to leave a message. Any advice would be appreciated!

Scam.

SCAM......in my opinion.

Very definitely scam and I would not provide any information at all to this individual.

If they are offering to pay you before you do any work, it's a scam.

Are you, by any chance, a college student? This is an old scam, but it has taken a new twist lately by hitting the college recruitment & jobs offices. There is a forum thread about this version of the scam here: [www.mysteryshopforum.com].

If you are interested in working for legitimate MSCs, you are in one of the best possible places to learn about them. At the bottom of every Forum page is our Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies. Any link you click on from that list has already been verified to be the legitimate company, and is a bona fide Mystery Shopping Company, not a scam.

Good luck, and we are here if you have any more questions!

It is a scam. The real company will have a job board where you select the assignments. First you sign up with a company, many times there is some on line training to do. Then you select assignments off a job board in most cases. Pay and reimbursement comes after the work is done. Use the list at the bottom and sign up with legitimate companies. Once you do a few mystery shops you will spot these scams at a glance.

You ever heard of any job where they will pay you before you do any work? That right there should tell you it's a scam. If you look around a little on this website, you will find posts from some unfortunate people who got suckered into this...they were sent a check and told to deposit it, then wire money to someone, keeping a portion of the money for their fee. Initially their bank released the funds. However, after 5 to 10 days, their bank declared the check to be fraudulent and the victims were out a good deal of money. It's really sad. Don't fall for this. Contact the police.