Mystery Shopping can be a fun way to earn some extra money while not having to go out of your way. The idea behind Mystery Shopping is pretty simple. Retail stores, restaurants, and other businesses want to know how they’re employees are performing when management isn’t looking over their shoulders.
They send in mystery shoppers to assess how their store handles customer inquiries, sales techniques, or whatever else the owners think may need improvement. As a mystery shopper you are given a specific assignment for what to buy, what questions to ask, and instructions on how to complete a detailed report.
When you are asked to purchase things in most cases you will be reimbursed after you submit your report. The pay varies based on the job, which is why a lot of people sign up with several mystery shopping services at the same time.
There is one very important thing that you need to be aware of if you’re going to seriously pursue mystery shopping. Many scam artists have started masquerading as legitimate mystery shopping companies.
So here are some tips for staying safe with mystery shopping…
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- Never pay money to become a mystery shopper, or for that matter any kind of certification programs.
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- Keep a list of all the real companies that you’ve registered with and know what their email addresses look like. Scammers will send out emails pretending to be real companies, but these are easy to spot since they use free or foreign email addresses.
- Most importantly if you get an email asking you to cash a check or do a Western Union “mystery shop” immediately discard it. Real mystery shopping companies will never ask you to do anything involving sending money, cashing huge checks, or anything financially sensitive.
With that being said if you are careful about what you’re doing and only stick to the real companies provided in this list or other trusted online sources then you should have no problems with mystery shopping.
Below you will find a list of Legitimate Mystery Shopping Job Companies (Updated 2018):
Mystery Shopping Jobs (A-B)
Mystery Shopping Jobs (C-L)
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holy wow. its as real as it is. lol. I mean, they've given you a ton of information, what else are you looking for? YES- it can work. NO- it wont work if you don't do the work. Like the old saying goes "it works if you work it!"
what they're saying, if you haven't figured this out, YET, is it does work because its legit work. You go to stores (for these companies that want you to go), purchase items, they reimburse you what you've spent (usually up to 5 or so dollars), then pay you what their offered pay is. SIMPLE.
GOOD LUCK.
First and foremost, these are legit mystery shop companies as listed above, and you can make some twos and fews, some of which I am already enrolled, actually.
Second, you have to do a lot of shops in order to make a somewhat decent amount of money, and as it goes with most mystery shopping companies, you usually won't see a paycheck for about 30 days AFTER you've completed the shop(s), unless as defined by their terms and conditions, they pay you sooner. As someone else wrote, your reports have to be very detailed along with being correct and on time, of course. Sometimes, an employee at a store can challenge you about your interaction with them during a particular shop. (This did happen to me once a long time ago. I got a call from a representative working for the mystery shop company telling me that the employee said I was wrong about what happened during my shop! I know what did and didn't happen; they just didn't want to get in trouble!) You can be docked pay/not get paid at all for late shops or inaccurate shops.
Lastly, with almost all mystery shop companies, you get a 1099-R when you make $500 as an independent contractor doing mystery shopping; however, I never made that much, maybe $200, if that, and that entailed my doing A LOT of mystery shops, but perhaps some one else could if they have the time to do tons of mystery shops every week. Otherwise, don't expect to make much money doing it.
I make on average 10.00 for 20 minutes sometimes the report takes longer. I am going to sign up for some of the others.
When I tried to cash their check at my bank, the bank teller told me that there was no such bank that wrote the check to me and that it was a fraudulent company trying to cheat people and that we were only one of many that have tried to cash their checks.
I was advised that the FBI was checking the company out.