Working from Home Part III

For a few seconds I actually got my hopes (ridiculously) up. There in my bulk email folder (clue no#1) was a job offer from a LLC for a mystery shopper (clue no#2). It was a very formal letter, minus the odd space following the end of my name, before the coma, in the salutation. (Really BIG clue no#3)

The letter explained how someone at the company had seen my resume online (clue no#5,002 by this point) and thought I'd be perfect for their $15 to $20 an hour mystery shopper position.

Immediately I took the LLC name through the Better Business Bureau's online website but not a lot of information was forthcoming until I put that simple, unpleasant, but all too obvious four letter word after the LLC in Google... S-C-A-M.

...and Bingo was his name OH!

Sorry, I was in need of a little song and dance to go along with my out-loud chuckle and roll of eyes as Google chucked up the company's fraudulent trespassing into numerous email accounts.

Not that big of a surprise, even with spam-guard up and ready to do battle, there will still be a few slip-ups. Such as the-ever-much-unwanted, but extraordinarily popular, Viagra emails, gift certificates to _______ (fill in hundreds of different places or items) and those momentarily-get-your-hopes-up employment potentials.

This email from the LLC for mystery shopping looked good, it looked professional. It wasn't obnoxiously colorful, or had glaringly oversized text, or a million graphics and links to follow. They didn't offer a too-good-to-be-true salary. It was a simple letter with "Dear Bethany ," (note that odd space) a thank you at the end with a single, rather benign looking link to their application webpage.

Rather than going through the offered link from the email I Googled to the company's homepage; again, nothing flashy or cheap, no popups; simple, clean, almost believable, if one can get passed that whole "mystery shopper" that ranks right along with stuffing envelopes.

I wondered, as I deleted the fairly-professional trespassing junk email, for all my doubting Thomasing, if mystery shopping exists? (Just as I wonder if there are folks sitting at home, stuffing envelopes and making money)

So I started my online mystery shopping scam-hunt with a stop at the FTC's website. There they had quite an eye-opening and lengthy consumer alert on how to avoid being scammed by mystery shopper ads. Then, as I was about to shrug off mystery shopping as forever-too-good-to-be-true, FTC led me to the Mystery Shopper Organization, MSPA (Mystery Shopper Providers Association) at www.mysteryshop.org

Whoa! Really?

MSPA, who sees mystery shopping as a profession rather than a hobby, is worldwide and offers a forum, company member list and a certification program for mystery shopping, all online.

Settle down, before you head out to the mall for "work", MSPA's online certification is not free but they do state on their website that in order to be a mystery shopper you are not required to be certified. What MSPA offers is two levels of certification (silver and gold) that makes a mystery shopper more marketable to companies who use them. Silver certification is a web-based educational program with Gold being a one-day workshop held in 25 major cities across the United States .

MSPA states that a mystery shopper can make anywhere from $5 to $20 a shop (this obviously isn't by the hour) with some assignments making up to $75. The organization estimates that there are 1 million mystery shoppers in the United States alone and based on a 2005 study there were at least 10 million shop opportunities.

MSPA estimates the value of the U.S. mystery shopping industry at $800 million and growing.

So if you a desire to become a mystery shopper, cut out the middle guy, by first deleting his scam-filled spam clogging up your inbox, and check out MSPA's site www.mysteryshop.org.

As always, do so with care and the word "scam" sitting piously on both shoulders. It's always better to be safe then sorry.

Stay tuned for further stories on working at home employment opportunities.

Bethany J. Royer-DeLong is currently entrenched at home fighting the good war against the gimmes and the I-don't-wannas. She blogs recklessly, as all mothers of children under the age of six should, and has been working on that "supposed" great American novel, times a dozen. You can visit her at motherofthemunchkins.blogspot.com and email her at broyerdelong@yahoo.com