If you are new to mystery shopping, one of the most difficult tasks you probably face is finding mystery shopping assignments. It can be very time-consuming and even frustrating to find mystery shopping assignments when you don’t know where to look. Add that to the fact there are a great deal of scam artists out there who are preying on unsuspecting mystery shoppers, and you are in for quite a challenge. If you want to know where to look to find mystery shopping assignments, here’s what you need to know.
Sign Up With Some Providers. The best thing to do as a new mystery shopper is to find a few good providers to work with. You can check with the website for the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, www.mysteryshop.org, which offers you a free list of legitimate mystery shopping providers. This is an excellent resource that can help you to weed through the scam artists and find real companies that you can work for. Be aware that there are some companies that will try to sell you a list of providers to work for. Their list may or may not be legitimate, but you should never have to pay for the list because it is available for free through the Mystery Shopping Providers Association website.
Jobslinger.com is also an excellent resource that can put you in contact with some mystery shopping providers.
Use Online Forums. The key to making good money as a mystery shopper is find providers who offer a lot of assignments in your area. Some mystery shopping providers offer assignments in certain parts of the country only. Others offer just a few assignments here and there. Even others offer only a certain type of assignments, such as movie theater checks or gas station assignments. You may find that you don’t enjoy doing those types of assignments.
It can be time consuming and tedious to sign up with many mystery shopping providers. Some providers require that you take writing tests and other types of tests before you can be approved to work for them. The last thing you want to do is spend several hours signing up to work for a handful of providers only to find out that they don’t offer the jobs you want in the location you are in. To avoid this from happening to you, be sure to check with your fellow mystery shoppers at the online mystery shopping forums to get some guidance on which providers are best for you to work for, given your location and job preferences.
If You Get Scammed. The unfortunate fact is that even the most careful mystery shoppers can get scammed by sneaky scam artists. If you think you have been approached by a scam artist, drop by an online mystery shopping forum and run the scenario by your fellow mystery shoppers. Online forums are a great source of information because many of the forum members have been mystery shoppers for years and have a great deal of experience. If you find out that you have fallen victim to a scam, be sure to report the scam artist to the authorities so they can be stopped before they target other people.
There are tons of great opportunities available for mystery shoppers, and you should have no problem finding many great, legitimate opportunities for mystery shopping assignments.
Great article
Great info. I’ve been a mystery shopper for two months now and I haven’t run into any problems because I’ve followed your advice. I’ve had steady work and for about 3 weeks now the pay checks have begun to come in!
I like this and you all sound very repubtle to me. The fact of how to know if it is a scam or not.
And how much can you really make on these shopping for pay expedtions. Is it worth the wear and tear on your tender feet? thanks maven.
I have been mystery shopping for about two months and have signed up with several companies and I am starting to see the checks coming in. I enjoy the variety of jobs available, but some the pay is so low they don’t seem worth it. I know I am new, and you have to walk before you can run, but how do you find the higher paying jobs? Do you have any suggestions?>
Virginia
Virginia,
Bank shops typically pay higher, and you don’t always have to have an account at these banks. Ath power, Informas Research and PROS offer bank jobs. I did a job for Informas that payed my $50. It was very detailed but worth it. I had to write-in the report and Fed Ex to them, but, they gave me the account number so it didn’t cost me a cent to send it to them. They also paid me $10 for a training call on how to do the shop.
I need to find a job where I don’t have to download as I haven’t figured it out yet.