A Word of Caution: Mystery Shopping

Awhile ago, I posted this Tip of the Day Tuesday post about Mystery Shopping. I recently had a reader contact me about a mystery shopping opportunity that she had received. She was wondering if it was legit.

The scenario they wanted her to carry out went something like this: They were going to send her a $3000+ check and she was to cash it and then spend some at Walmart ($100 or so), some at a restaurant), and then take the rest and send it back to them via Money Gram.

If you get an offer like this, please do not sign up and if you get a check in the mail from a company claiming to be a mystery shopping company with an offer like this, please do not cash the check. This is a scam and the check ends up bouncing and you end up losing a lot of money. If a mystery shopping offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

You can read more about this particular scam here.

There is a list of legitimate, reputable mystery shopping companies here on Volition.com. Even if you receive an offer from a company on this list and it sounds too good to be true, you may want to do some more research. Some scam companies are using the names of legitimate mystery shopping companies to trick people.