Greetings to all of the hard working and dedicated individuals of this wonderful industry! My name is Don Bode, I founded the Consumer Research Group, a.k.a. CRG in a spare bedroom of my family's home in San Antonio, Texas in 1994. While we shuttered our doors in 2018, for the sake of those interested, I would like to clear up some lingering "fog" surrounding the presence and current status of my company.
Like, several of our competitors in the mystery shopping industry, we had our corporate identity stolen in 2007 by criminals operating in Canada, the UK and several middle Eastern countries. Quite simply, these computer savvy, con artists, simply copied and stole the pages of our company website and created a fictitious "shadow company" that posed as the Consumer Research Group. Operating as our company, these scam artists mailed out hundreds of fake assignments to shop, usually a Walmart, a Wendy's and always a Western Union location. The "assignment" had a cover letter, complete with fake CRG letterhead and reporting forms and even a very real looking, though fake, cashier's Check as payment up front (which all seasoned shoppers knew was not done by reputable companies). This scam became widely known as the dastardly "Cashier's Check Scam".
Many, naïve, though intelligent and trusting individuals, have fallen victim to this scam and have been sadly bilked out of thousands of their personal dollars! Unfortunately, the first warnings that our company Identity was being used in this criminal rampage came in the form of angry attorney Generals from several states acting on complaints of victims, which included complaints from actual victims went as far as several death threats. Then to make matters worse, an Ed Magedson who had just started up a website titled "Rip Off Report" , posted several complaints (which are still on his site as of today) that was visible to all search engines, such as Google. Even though we filed and posted rebuttals to the Rip Off Report claims, their slanderous rating of our company ultimately resulted in us closing down our company after 26 years of earning a highly regarded reputation in the industry.
I would like to personally take this opportunity to express both my regrets and apologies to the many dedicated individuals that worked for us in various capacities, in some cases, for as long as 9 years! Also, we owe a deep regret that we are no longer able to serve the many wonderful client organizations that put their trust and faith in the Consumer Research Group. Final note: We further apologize for the fact that a small, "spin off" service, while confusingly operating under the same name, is in no way affiliated in any form or faction of the Consumer Research Group of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Don Bode, Founder
Consumer Research Group a.k.a. CRG of North Carolina
1994-2018
DE Bode
It is against the forum policy to name both MSC and Client in the same post. It also violates the ICA signed by all mystery shoppers.