Stay away
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SO cool – thank you for sharing @valerie.magorrian
Thank you for the wonderful participation
Mystery Shopping is actually something I recently started trying out and I am really enjoying it.
Thanks for sharing this company, I was not aware of it before and would love to give them a try.
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Mystery shopping be great as a side job for me. How do you find other companies that are legitimate? So many I see want money up front and don’t deliver.
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Please beware of the mystery shopper scams I was just sent a check from a mystery shopper wrap for my car they wanted me to deposit this cashier check in my bank and it was for $4000 but something told me to call the bank that the cashier check was from I did FAKE so please beware there’s alot of scammers out there
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Thanks for the info Valerie, but just like 1cent mention. It’s hard to find legitimate companies from the ones that really do not hassle and payout.
Thanks Valerie
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@desig2003 You are very correct. There are lots of mystery shopping scams and things like it on the internet.
@1cent I will be writing a post soon about my experience with mystery shopping so far and sharing the different ones I use so stay tuned.
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@moore.income that would be great. I been really interested to get into that but don’t know where to start or where would be a good point of entry to start without getting scammed. Def, looking forward to hearing your venture on this field. Please keep me post it when you have it available. Thanks in advance for taking the time to do it.
Here are a few legit companies that I have been shopping for years and they are 100 percent legit. A Closer Look- www.a-closer-look.com They do restaurants and a few other things like retail and some low end hotels, however they work on a scale so you will see lower end shops like diners until you do a few reports and they see you have good writing skills, then you get offered better shops. You are reimbursed for purchases but rarely paid anything on top of that but still, if its a nice dinner its worth a report!
MarketForce-This is a great place to start shopping. They do fast food shops and they are very quick and easy. They also give a small payment on top of reimbursement such as $5
Intellishop-Another good starter company. They do stuff like pizza shops and oil changes. Its always great to get a free oil change!
Stay away from some others. Message me for details on who I do NOT recommend.
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I am also looking for stay at home side jobs and could do mystery shopping ! I could do it if it is local work , 2 children in school k-8 !
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There are definitely legitimate mystery shopping companies out there. I’ve done mystery shopping since around 1998 (my first shop was at Kroger) with Secret Shopper https://www.secretshopper.com/(formerly called Sites on Service or a similar-sounding name). With them, you get paid on the 20th of the following month you did the job. In 2017, I started with Best Mark http://bestmark.com/ and like that they pay every 2 weeks. I signed up a few weeks ago for Coyle Hospitality (mostly hotel shops) https://www.coylehospitality.com/ but haven’t yet done any work for them. I may not stick it with them. When I was working full-time, I liked picking up a shop or two. Now that I’m semi-retired and do freelance work at home, I still do some shops. I have two this week; one today (Sunday) at Best Buy ($11.50), and another Tuesday at an auto key shop ($20). I average around $15-20 a shop, but it depends on the shop. When I’m unable to go out and phone shops are available, I do those for $3 to $7. It is not a lot of money but there are perks. There was a period of about 12 months where I got my car oil changes for free + the shop fee, and it was the dealership where I bought my 13-year-old car. I like the variety of restaurants and you can take a guest (Maggiano’s, Logan’s Roadhouse, for e.g.), Lowes, banks, the place where you buy medical scrubs, all types. Did a shop for a Google shop, called B8TA (Beta), where they have new technology a couple of weeks ago. Give it a shot. It’s fun or maybe it makes me feel like an actor (go figure).
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Moore Income posted:
Mystery Shopping is actually something I recently started trying out and I am really enjoying it.
Thanks for sharing this company, I was not aware of it before and would love to give them a try.
How to become a mystery shopper?
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1cent posted:
Mystery shopping be great as a side job for me. How do you find other companies that are legitimate? So many I see want money up front and don’t deliver.
I’ve done legit jobs for (and gotten paid every time) Gigspot.com & Secondtonone.com ….just sign up & check email often. They do have certain pay periods though. It will explain during sign up, but they DO pay…good luck.
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Thank you all for the helpful tips 
Wyatt Gardner, just go to the various links people have posted here. Open them and see what you have to do. They’re pretty easy to fill out. Now, when I started with Secret Shopper back in the late 90s, I read about it in a women’s magazine and just completed an application. When I applied to Best Mark in 2017, it was from a job site that listed it.
I will take a look at Service Scouts next. I like to write up the reports after my shops but from what I can see, Coyle Hospitality has entirely too much detail requested on its shops. They have very specific guides for formatting, for example.
@wyatt.gardner as @sthom mentioned, you pretty much just have to go to the links an apply.
Sometimes, applying for different companies can take a bit of time and they sometimes ask quite a few questions but just fill them out honestly and you should be fine. I have only been rejected once because I didn’t finish the application process.
I have signed up for about 8 different companies in the past two days. Looking forward to trying them out.
The nice thing about mystery shopping is you can do it anywhere, so my wife and I will be able to earn some money and get some free meals from time to time.
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@moore.income Yes, indeed, the free meals are fun. I’ve done shops in another state (MS) when I knew I’d be heading there: a fitness club shop and a Ryan’s (buffet) shop with my late mother. Secret Shopper will let you access/sign up for other states as well. You should look at Coyle Hospitality…they seem to have lots of hotel shops. That’d be nice for you and your wife. I’ve signed up with them and am receiving shop notices, but still haven’t performed one yet. I had a Trader Joe’s shop scheduled for today (Best Mark) but I had to cancel due to illness.
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