The Set Up

A dream job that many people visualize is strolling through stores and enjoying the displays, while earning a paycheck. Known as Mystery Shopping, these ads glamorize the idea of shopping for merchandise then filing reports on your experiences to earn $10 or even $20 per hour.

The Scam

Most ads for Mystery Shoppers are actually scams that hit you up for $29.95, or $19.95 or $49.95. For this fee, or "application charge," you will be supplied with a list of places and companies that may hire Mystery Shoppers. Usually, this list is simply a collection of department store addresses and contact information. Another scams requires that you actually buy merchandise from a particular web site. The employer promises to refund your purchases. However, the employer will always find a reason not to issue a refund.

Cold Hard Truth

Mystery Shopping is nowhere near as glamorous as it appears. Ordinarily, it is done by the Buyers or the Merchandise Managers, who have many years of experience, and who are very familiar with suppliers, prices, products, special promotions, and the like. Generally, this does not involve actually buying the merchandise. Furthermore, stores need to change the people they send out on these spy missions so the competitors will not catch on. For this reason, Mystery Shopping can never be a full time, permanent job. Of course, it's not really a work-at-home job either, which is why you will not see even legitimate shopper ads in the SOHO Jobs Weekly.

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