Mystery shopping, a practice often used in the retail and service industries, involves hiring individuals to anonymously visit establishments and assess the customer experience. These individuals, known as mystery shoppers or secret shoppers, play a key role in providing valuable feedback to businesses. By evaluating various aspects such as customer service, product quality, and overall environment, mystery shoppers help businesses identify areas for improvement and maintain service standards.
In the process, mystery shoppers typically make purchases or use services, and then report on their experiences. Their feedback serves as a valuable tool for businesses to enhance customer satisfaction and ensure consistent service quality.
Mystery shopping is often seen as an assignment or occasional work. It’s important to know that these opportunities can also be manipulated and exploited as job scams.
How to spot a mystery shopping scam
According to the Federal Trade Commission, here are ways to avoid scams:
- Do not pay for work. Companies pay you, not charge you, to work for them. Even if they say the money is really for a certification, training, or a guaranteed job, don’t do it. No real job, including mystery shopping, involves paying to get the job. You’ll find out the certification is worthless, and there’s probably no job.
- Do not pay for a list of mystery shopping jobs.
- Never wire money as part of a mystery shopping assignment. A scammer might send you a check for buying products, tell you to deposit it, and wire money back for “taxes,” “fees,” or some other reason. This is a classic scammer move. Wiring money is like sending cash – once you send money through a company like MoneyGram or Western Union, you probably will not get it back.
- Never deposit checks into your bank account and send money back. It does not matter who it is from or what they say it is for – do not do it. This is known as a fake check scam. Any money withdrawn from your account is your own money since the check is worthless.
- Do not apply for mystery shopping jobs that guarantee you will make a lot of money. Only scammers make these guarantees. And only scammers say you will be able to quit your job and do this full-time. Mystery shopping jobs are typically part-time work and does not usually pay enough to replace a full-time job.
- Do not respond to a job notice saying it is with MSPA. The Mystery Shopping Professionals Association (MSPA) is a trade association for the customer experience industry. MSPA does not fire or advertise for mystery shoppers.
- When research a potential mystery shopping job, search online for the company name with the words “review,” “complaint,” or “scam.” Check to see what others are saying about the company before pursuing the opportunity. Talk with someone you trust to get their opinion.
Mystery shopping involves anonymous visits to assess customer experience in retail and service industries. While valuable, it can also be exploited as a job scam. It is important to exercise caution when exploring opportunities. Ways to avoid scams include not paying for work, avoiding wiring money, and researching companies thoroughly.