I checked into mystery shopping because I'm a stay at home mom that would like to make a little extra money without being tied to a set schedule. I received an offer in the mail today from a company called Customer Impact and they sent a check for me to cash and to do some surveys with. It says to keep $250 and then allot the rest for the survey jobs. I'm concerned about money scams so not sure whether to cash the check and do the jobs or not. If anyone has worked for this company and tell me whether they are legit or a scam.

I never registered with them that I know of but the letter says that i have been selected and hired. I'm new to this and it just sounds to good to be true.

Customer Impact in and of itself is a good company to work for. The mail you received did not originate from the true Customer Impact. What you received is typical of mail scams these days that are preying on people who have heard just a little about mystery shopping but not enough to know this isn't the real deal.

I have friends who have received them and I say to them...when you get something like this ask yourself WHY the company would choose you (who has never worked for them before) to take on a 250.00 shop? When a shop comes along that is truly worth the work of 250.00 they are going to choose a seasoned shopper and the shop will be way more involved than basically cashing a check.

That said sometimes these scams are sent to shoppers who are all ready registered with the company whose name has been stolen..in that case I know as a seasoned shopper with Customer Impact they don't just send mail jobs. They email, call, you go through their website, etc.

Liz

Thank you for your response. I knew it was to good to believe. I believe I will be throwing this in the trash can.

Take the entire letter to the police and to the Postal Inspectors. It is a fraud and a scam.

@jaejaesmama wrote:

Thank you for your response. I knew it was to good to believe. I believe I will be throwing this in the trash can.

Customer Impact is a great company to work with. I would not only notify the police and Postal Inspectors, but would also get in touch with Customer Impact so that they can investigate. Don't just toss the check and forget about it. Take the next step and try to stop this from happening to someone who does not know any better and would end up getting badly hurt by this scam.

Thanks for the positive comments about Customer Impact on this thread. We all greatly appreciate it.

Unfortunately jaejaesmama, as the other posters have pointed out, what you received was a scam from people who pose as our company and many other reputable mystery shop companies. This has been an issue for over 2 years now, and seems to come in waves. They'll use our company name for a while, then another, and another, then cycle back.

We have received hundreds of calls from suspicious shoppers, we've seen the scam checks as our return address used to be on the mail these scammers send out, and we've reported it to the various authorities and Postal Inspectors and more. It's extremely frustrating that these folks are out there and hurting our name(and this industry for that matter).

However, one thing you can always guarantee, is no mystery shopping company will give you a check up front for anything. That's now how the industry works. So, as the old adage goes, "if it's too good to be true, it probably is."

Great job using the forum to question it before following through with trying to cash it. We encourage anyone who has questions about it to call our offices as well, and we've had a lot of folks do just that.

I'm sorry that your first impression of us was now soured due to the scam check, but we encourage you to sign up with us and hopefully we have some shops near you.

Thanks again for the great answers and support to the other posters.

Daniel Price
Project Manager, Customer Impact, LLC.
dprice@customerimpactinfo.com

Also, if you want to sign up to do true mystery shopping (and not the scams), go to the list at the bottom of every page of this forum. The list is called Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies. You can search about each company to see what other members are saying about it as well as use the link to register with the known good link instead of relying upon something found in Google.

Check out the New Shoppers section in this forum as well as it has a lot of good information for someone just starting out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 06:05AM by lbw1000.

fraud alert !!! Customer Impact is one of my favorite companies to shop for. They are legit, and can't imagine this is anything but fraud, but not by C.I.

When I did some eatery shops for them a couple of years ago it was an excellent company to work for. I haven't heard anything to the contrary since.

It seems like s scam. I would not cash that cheque because here in Canada there have been mystery shops where the company mailed shoppers cheques that were huge amounts of money and when the shopper goes to either deposit or cash the cheque it would bounce. When the cheque bounces the bank nor the company that the person is doing missions for do not care if it is the shopper's fault and in turn it ends up costing the shopper lots of money. I also read and found out that some of these companies are not where they say they are from, especially those that are not certified by the bbb or the mspa. Some companies that say that they are from the US or Canada may infact be from a country like Nigeria where scams are really really high. If you think it is too good to be true then it probably is and I would notify the police before you decide to cash that cheque and end up being out $250.00

Ohhh yes. The check cashing scams always put a realistic MSC company name on a check, then asks the shopper to cash it. ANY check cashing shops should raise a red flag