Posted by anita55109 on 6/22/10 8:49am
Msg #341808

Mystery Shopping

Was just trying to find out if anyone has worked for or heard of Mystery America, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York. The email also has the company name of Communications & Human Resources Center at the same address. It sounds very interesting but they are asking for some very personal information right off the bat such as DL # and SS # along with home address.

Reply by mwm143 on 6/22/10 8:56am
Msg #341812

I received a request to conduct a "shop" last week. I was to get a money order 48 hours in advance of the shop for a minimum of $25. Then take it to the retail store (it was a check cashing service) 40 miles away. Evaluate the process and report back. They were offering me a bonus of $8 for the cost of the money order and to cover the fees the check cashing service would charge. They used the word bonus by the way. The total fee would be $16.00 including my bonus!

Reply by Michelle/AL on 6/22/10 9:09am
Msg #341815

1. No. I have not worked for or heard of Mystery America.
2. I would suggest that you go to www.mysteryshop.org and search there for information about them. There are forums on that site where shoppers rate companies (similar to the Signing Central tab here on NotRot).
3. Requesting SS# and DL# is standard operating procedure for Mystery Shops. I tried giving my TIN to one company in place of SSN. By doing that I became ineligible for many high paying shops because my profile depicted me as a business and not an individual.

Reply by MistarellaFL on 6/22/10 10:21am
Msg #341836

It's a scam company

http://antifraudintl.org/showthread.php?t=22413

Reply by David Gussie on 6/22/10 11:41am
Msg #341866

I have been getting a lot of mystery shopping email which you have to pay to belong. One of them got into my credit card and tried to charge five items but the credit card company became suspicious and turned the charges down. Be careful!

Reply by Shoshana/AZ on 6/22/10 12:57pm
Msg #341887

Mystery shopping is not worth the time or effort in my opinion. You may get a free meal or an overnight stay at a motel. They pay very little but reimburse your expenses. Frankly, it's not worth my time or effort.

Reply by ikando on 6/22/10 3:51pm
Msg #341948

I used to do mystery shops too. Like the fees paid by some SS for our notary services, mystery shopping companies only "offer" a minimal amount for what they want you to do. I determined that the "free" restaurant meals were not enough incentive for me to spend up to 2 hours doing the shop and filing the report. Not to mention that that reimbursement took upwards of 30 days for payment.

Hmm, wonder if there's any correlation between SS and Mystery Shopping assignment businesses?