Now that school is out, many students are searching for summer employment. One job that might seem enticing is becoming a mystery shopper. It offers easy pay, flexible work schedules and money to shop or eat at a restaurant. Legitimate mystery shopping opportunities are out there, but so are fraudulent ones.
Recently, Better Business Bureau received a letter related to a mystery shopping scheme. Enclosed was a $2,998 check and a detailed assignment from someone posing as Helion Research, a legitimate company that employs mystery shoppers to research companies. The assignment requests the recipient go to a local Apple Store, buy two gift cards worth a total of $2,600, fill out an assessment form included with the letter and keep the rest of the money as compensation.
The letter is littered with typos and grammatical errors, which are a red flag. For example, the letter says:
“The merits of this exercise are in the survey itself and provide you the opportunity to valuable and sensitive information it helps with business development and first-hand consumer experience. You are required to deposit the check at your bank, wait for funds to be available before you begin your task.”
The letter provided a phone number to text for further instructions after the gift cards are purchased. In cases like this, the scammer will then ask the victim to take a picture of the gift card numbers and then email the photos along with a survey about their shopping experience. Once you send the information, the thief can steal the money from the gift cards.
Mystery shopper schemes fall under the broader category of employment scams. In many cases, these con artists will contact someone randomly, tell them they’ve been hired for a job and, in this case, provide a fake check to “cover expenses.” Even if the check is deposited into an account, it may take several days for the bank to flag it for insufficient funds. At that point, the victim may be on the hook for the full amount.
Thus far in 2018, Texas residents have filed 204 employment scam reports on BBB Scam Tracker. That is nearly double the number of reports compared to the same time frame last year.
To avoid falling for this type of scam, BBB recommends the following:
- Be skeptical of unsolicited job offers. In this case, the scammer uses a real company name to give it an air of legitimacy.
- Never wire money or send gift cards. Scammers know that once the money is sent, it’s untraceable.
- Check MSPA. Legitimate Secret Shopper companies are typically sanctioned by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association.
If you think you’ve been the target of an employment scam, file a report with Better Business Bureau at bbb.org/scamtracker.
