by Danielle Somers

Created on: April 08, 2009

Let's be honest, we all know they are out there....we just don't know how they get their jobs.

After leaving my restaurant management job of twelve years, I decided that perhaps mystery shopping was the thing for me. After all, I had quality, service and cleanliness drilled into my mind for so long, why shouldn't it do me some good?

The only problem with this plan, how do I become one?

This turned out to be a tricky problem. I had been visited by mystery shoppers hundreds of times in my career, but it's not like they tell you they are one. For all I know, the friend I went out to lunch with the other day could have been on assignment.

Just as I thought this idea was a pipe dream, I got the email I had been waiting for. I had been hired as a mystery shopper! Or so I thought.

I received an email explaining my first assignment. I was to cash a check that was being sent to me in the amount of thirty five hundred dollars. Five hundred was to be the compensation for my time, and I was to use another five hundred to purchase something from a well known department store, that I could keep for my own use. The rest of the money, twenty five hundred dollars, was to be wired to some address in the United Kingdom. Sounded to good to be true, but I considered it because I was unemployed and reaching desperation.

I am a skeptic though, so I emailed back asking for the company name, phone number, and address of the company that I was said to be hired by. The person I was corresponding with never emailed me such information.

A few days later, I received the check. It was a personal check drawn from a well known bank, but not signed. The only other thing in the envelope was a blank piece of paper that the check was wrapped up in. When I saw this, I was scared.

I emailed the person again, and got no response.

I then decided to call the bank. The bank had never heard of the routing or account number on the check, or the name of the person on the check. I was advised to just rip it up and forget it ever happened.

There was no way that was going to happen. I forwarded all the emails I had sent or received from the so called company, and the check to my local police department. I have no idea if anything will come of my efforts to stop them, but I walked away with a valuable lesson.

Don't get me wrong, mystery shoppers do exist....just wish I knew how they become what they are!

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