In the interest of making the world a better place, I would like to list a number of signs that I saw that convinced me that this company was not legitimate and that the offer was a scam. Some are obvious, while others not so obvious and require a bit of investigation. Almost any one of them would signal a scam.

• Money sent before I agreed to shop • Amount extremely large • No way to guarantee that I would not keep the money for myself • Money being sent out of country • Name of company on letter and on check different • Large payment for service • Recipient is referred to as an employee • Could not find name of company on the Internet • Company listed on check is not in any way related to mystery shopping • Assignments too random and too generalized • Money sent to fake individual using my last name • Address of company non-existent • Number for company is cell phone in Canada

Money Sent First

Legitimate mystery shopping companies NEVER send money first, unless it is required for you to complete the shop. If I were to shop MoneyGram, for instance, they might ask me to use my money and then reimburse me. If I were to cash a check at a bank, I might be sent a check from that bank (as once happened to me), but the amount would be very low. Any company that pays you before you have agreed to work with them should be suspect.

Amount Extremely Large

When I was to mystery shop a bank by cashing a check, I was sent a check for $16 something made out to me from what appeared to be a personal account (the check was hand written). I was paid for the shop at a later date. $4,995 is a huge a mount of money. If I understand it right, any check $5,000 and up will get flagged by the bank, so by keeping the amount just under $5,000, the scammer is hoping to not get noticed.

No Guarantee From Me

There is no way for the scammer to guarantee that I won’t cash the check and keep the money for myself. Of course, since it’s not their money to begin with, they don’t care. But they tried to make a pretense by putting some legal sounding hogwash on the back about ethics and honesty, like "Imbursement of Company funds will not be tolerated."

Money Sent Out of Country

The money was being sent out of country, making it harder to track. Sure, it’s not Nigeria, but for all we know, the person on the other end could be a Nigerian in Canada!

Company Names Don’t Match

The company name on the letter and the name company listed on the check were different. This means the scammer is stealing from a legitimate company.

Large Payment for Service

The most I ever got for a mystery shop was about $30, I think, and that was because they were desperate to get the shop done and I was the only one available, and they increased the pay to outweigh the inconvenience for me to drive half and hour one way to do the shop. The average I got paid per shop was about $10. So $300 for just two assignments was way too much.

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