How I Got Started & A Word of Caution
A while back, I stated that I would write an article about mystery shopping… so here it is! Back in my early college days, I got an email that said something like, “Get paid to shop!” I knew little about spam and scams at that time, so I paid a $20 fee to get started. Although it was dumb of me to not only spend money I didn’t have, but I spent money on a company that I knew nothing about in attempt to make money. When I got into their “portal,” it was a never ending list of surveys and complete-this-offer-to-mystery-shop. But there were a couple real mystery shopping companies on that list and I was lucky enough to find them and write down their names. Knowing I was scammed, I called the company to cancel my membership. The line was constantly busy, even at off-peak times, so I called my credit card company. I explained what happened and they reversed the charge – thank goodness!
(I tell you this little back story, not to scare you, but to let you know what happened to me. Granted this is a very small incident compared to the cashier-check scams out there, but there are scams out there! Don’t fall for them – listen to your intuition. Don’t ever ever ever cash a cashier’s check or money order that was sent to you by someone you don’t know. This scammers send you a check/money order. You deposit the money into your own account and then send the majority of it back. Time goes by and then your bank contacts you saying that you owe them hundreds or thousands of dollars for a fake check/MO. Guess what? When you contact the company you got the check/MO from, they are looooong gone and don’t exist anymore. They have the money and leave you to pay up what is owed plus the fees. Many scammers are also impersonating MSPs now too, so you need be cautious.)
Fast forward a few years to 2006, I hit my worst. I quit school, my Mary Kay director quit, I was in a town one hour from any family and friends (except for D), and I had creditors calling me left and right. Desperate, I found that little piece of paper with mystery shopping companies on it and started doing assignments. Mystery shopping provided me with something to do with my time, a way to interact with people, and a way to make money. I’ve been consistently mystery shopping since January 2006, but got more serious about it in June 2008.