Don't Be Conned By This Mystery Shopping Scam

Don’t be conned by money-transfer mystery shopping scam

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A nasty couple of scam websites have just been closed down in New York for tricking people into sending money abroad as part of a mystery shopping scam.

Victims were sent bogus cheques for $2,000 and instructed to cash them and keep $300 as payment. Then they were told to wire the remaining $1,700 overseas using Western Union and say how the company did in completing the transaction. But once the victim’s bank identified the cheque as counterfeit, their $1,700 was gone and they were left having to foot the bill.

This is a regular email scam and I’ve warned of it before but again I say, beware if you see an offer like this that sounds too good to be true.

There are several mystery shopping scams about and all sorts of bogus companies try to get you to pay them to ‘register’ before getting work with them.

Be very careful. Only sign-up to companies that we recommend on Moneymagpie. You can see a list of decent mystery shopping companies in our mystery shopping article here. There’s also a list, and a lot of information on how to be safe while doing mystery shopping in our mystery shopping ebook so check that out.

Mystery shopping jobs can be great and I’ve certainly enjoyed getting free meals, free drinks and all sorts by being a mystery shopper, but it’s an area you really need to be careful of.