Spotting scams

Modified on Wed, 21 Jun, 2023 at 1:12 PM

Unfortunately, the mystery shopping industry has been victimized many times by scammers who pose as mystery shopping companies. Mystery shopping attracts many people who are eager to find part-time work, and may be vulnerable to scams that take advantage of their inexperience and willingness to believe claims of huge earnings, easy work and no experience required. With a little knowledge, you can protect yourself from being scammed, and help protect your fellow shoppers too.

Recently, shoppers have been targeted by scammers claiming to be from Presto. The scam works like this:

The shopper receives a text from someone claiming to be the "assigned coordinator" from Presto and informing the shopper that they have been assigned to a shop.
The shopper is sent a letter containing a cover letter/shop instructions sheet, a survey form and a check for a large amount (over $3000).
The cover letter/shop instructions claim that this is a shop to identify deficiencies in the USPS. They tell the shopper to purchase three postal money orders in large amounts (just under $1000 which is the maximum for a postal money order), using their own funds. The shopper is to mail the money orders to an address that will be provided to them in a followon text message, and to deposit the check, which covers the cost of the money orders plus a $400 shop fee.

What's wrong with this picture?

This is a version of the "check cashing" scam (described in more detail below). If the shopper follows the instructions and mails the money orders, they will go to the scammer's address. The check is a forgery and will bounce, and the shopper will be out the entire cost of the money orders.
Presto is a technology company, not a mystery shopping company. We do not employ "coordinators" or schedulers.
Presto shops are not "assigned" to you. You claim shops from the Presto map.
Presto does not collect shopper phone numbers or mailing addresses. If you receive a text or get a letter in the mail, it isn't from Presto.

DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN TARGETED WITH A SCAM?

CONTACT PRESTO AT [email protected]

How can you spot a scam?

The good news is that these scams are easy to spot and avoid. Here are some red flags to watch out for:

Check cashing/purchasing a money order or gift card. Any time you are asked to purchase a money order (or something with a cash equivalent like a gift card) with your own funds, and deposit a check to cover the expense, it's a scam. The check will bounce and the scammer will have YOUR money.
Unsolicited contact or job offers from a company you've never worked for. There are many legitimate ways to receive email notifications about mystery shopping jobs, such as Presto's daily shop emails, but ALL of them identify themselves. You will never get an email from Presto that is not identified as such, and you will never get any of these emails unless YOU signed up for the service.
- If you get an unsolicited shop offer email, and you don't know the sender, be wary of scams.
- Even if they give you the name of a legitimate mystery shopping company, be careful - scammers have often been known to impersonate legitimate companies.
- Be especially careful with texts or phone calls from people claiming to be schedulers. A scheduler may call you about a shop that you have already applied for (SASSIE shops), or may call shoppers who have worked for them before if they have a shop that they need to fill (and if they have your phone number), but they don't call shoppers who have never worked for them. If you get a call from an unknown company, it's probably a scam.
Spoofed email. A spoofed email is one that uses a forged sender address to try to convince you that the email was sent from a trustworthy source. To learn more about how to spot a spoofed email, see https://cybernews.com/secure-email-providers/email-spoofing/
Anything sent via snail mail (physical mail). Mystery shopping companies communicate via email (and sometimes via phone, if you have done shops for them before and given them your contact information). Presto only communicates with shoppers via our helpdesk, which sends you email notifications, and our daily shop emails. Neither will send you anything via physical mail.
Grammatical and spelling errors and awkward phrases. Professional communications are reviewed carefully. It is rare for them to contain these kinds of errors, and unheard of for multiple errors to be found in the same document.
Paper forms. All Presto forms are filled out online. If you are given a paper form to fill out, it’s not a Presto shop!

How can you verify if an offer is legit?

See if the company is a legitimate mystery shopping company. You can search the MSPA member companies at https://www.mspa-americas.org/search/. Not every legitimate mystery shopping company belongs to the MSPA (particularly if they're small and just starting out), but it's a good indicator. Be careful, though! Scammers may pose as a known legitimate company -- so if you're given the name of a legitimate company (or even an actual person who works for that company), but the deal still seems shady, don't trust it!
Contact the company yourself. If you're given the name of a legitimate company, look up their contact information on the internet and contact them directly yourself, to ask if the offer is valid. If they say they've never heard of it, congratulations -- you've just avoided being scammed, and you’ve let them know that someone is running a scam in their name!
Ask other shoppers. Mystery Shop Forum (http://mysteryshopforum.com/) is a great place to ask other shoppers about their experiences with companies, and get their take on whether an offer sounds legit.

What should you do if you've been targeted by a scam?

Let us know! If the scammer claimed to be from Presto or to be working on our behalf, we want to know! Please contact us at [email protected] and include copies of any communications.
Report any texts to your service provider. On Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T/Cricket, forward suspect texts to 7726 (SPAM).
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/. The FTC investigates abuse and works to shut down scammers.
Try to get your money back! If you've been targeted with a fake check/check cashing scam like the one described below, you might be able to get your money back if you act fast enough. See the section "What To Do If You Sent Money To A Scammer" section on the FTC's fake check page.
Post your findings on Mystery Shop Forum (http://mysteryshopforum.com/) to warn other shoppers.
Make sure that your personal information is secure. It is very easy for scammers to obtain your email address, so just getting a scam email doesn't mean that the scammer has any other information about you -- but they could get it, if you use easily guessed passwords for your accounts. If a scammer has your email address, make sure that they can't use it to log into your accounts with an easily guessed password! Check any online accounts that use the email address that the scammer used to contact you and make sure that they have good passwords -- longer passwords that don't consist of real words, that contain both letters and numbers, and that don't follow a pattern. Use a password manager such as Bitwarden to help manage these passwords and do security checks to see if any of your passwords may have been exposed.

Spotting a scam: a real life example

The following was mailed to a mystery shopper, who was properly suspicious and forwarded it to Presto Support. We are very grateful to this shopper for sharing this information, which we hope will save other shoppers from being targeted. If you receive any communications like this, please contact Presto Support at [email protected]. Thanks!

Look below the image for a list of giveaways in this attempted scam!

Don’t trust the communication just because you see a logo. The logo looks legit – but nowadays, it’s possible to copy any company’s logo from their website.
Grammatical errors, awkward phrasings, strange word choices, frankly weird description of a problem that is unrelated to the task. This cover letter is full of these, and that should make you suspicious.
Check cashing. This is one of the most common scams. The “task” requires you to make a purchase with your own funds, send the purchased item somewhere (always something with a cash equivalent, such as a money order or a gift card), and then cash the check that you were sent in advance for performing this “task”. Mystery shopping jobs often require a purchase, but never for an amount this large, and they never ask you to send the purchased item to them or to anyone else. They also don’t pay you up front with a check that you could simply deposit and not perform the task. In this case, the scammer hopes that the shopper will be attracted by the chance to make an easy $400, make a purchase of $2955 worth of postal money orders and mail them to “another shopper” (guess what? That’s the scammer!). Then , when you try to deposit their check for $3555 in order to get paid, you find that it's fake. The check bounces, and you’re out $2955.
Fake name, nonexistent person. If you’re given a name of someone who supposedly works for a company, you can google it to find out if there is actually such a person (hint: there isn’t any "Henry Kennedy" working for Presto – and no one puts a title like “PhD” in a business letter).
Paper form. No one sends paper forms to shoppers.
“Store”? Store name? Store appearance? Store clerk? Wasn’t this about the post office? Where are all the questions about the issues that were mentioned in the cover letter?
Generic envelope, generic address label, stamp. Company communications would use an envelope with a pre-printed logo, not a generic envelope and a mass-print address label with no company name, and they would almost always use a postage meter, not a physical stamp.
Kohl’s? The letter said this was Presto contacting the shopper about a shop at the USPS. What does Kohl’s have to do with anything?
Nonexistent bank. This is more work than you would probably want go through, but if you check the routing number (the leftmost group of digits), you’ll find that there is no bank associated with this number. If in doubt, take it to your bank and ask them to check. One of the targeted shoppers did this, and the teller was able to tell them right away: it's a forgery!

DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN TARGETED WITH A SCAM?

CONTACT PRESTO AT [email protected]