Anyone heard of this company? Mystery Shopping

MrsGSR

Clicked on this at the top of my email account
http://www.mshopuk.co.uk/
It does ask you to pay £19.99 which you get back.
I'm not going to sign up for it or anything as always feel that anything that asks you for money up front is a scam, I just wondered if anyone had heard of them or used them? In my experience MSing, you don't get paid that much an hour!

ColinAllCars

Regd to a Non Trading Individual http://whois.pho.to/wy_media_wy_media/

I cant see anywhere where it says they return your registration fee.

"Does It Cost Anything To Join?

Yes, to join up to the MShop network we require an initial payment. MShop UK charges a onetime only registration fee "

Touch and Barge Pole come to mind.

daedal

No legitimate site needs to charge, they get paid by the companies, so don't need to get paid by the Mystery Shopper.

You have to ask yourself, would you pay your local shop money to be able to apply to work for them, or pay Tesco's to apply to work for them, the principal is the same, you don't pay to be able to apply for a job. Yes sometimes there are costs like uniforms etc you have to pay for, but no legitimate company charges you, to apply to them.

geordie_joe

As Colin says, they don't say they will give it back, what they say is you will easily make it back in only an hour online.

But what if you pay the fee and they don't get you any work? What if they take your 20 quid down to the pub thinking "Some sucker paid for my drinks tonight". You will never make you 20 quid back, will you.

I wouldn't even touch them with someone else's barge pole!

Promising to give/find someone work in exchange for a fee, which they will easily make back in their first wage, then not giving/finding them work is one of the oldest cons in the book. They used to do it via little ads in newspapers and cards in newsagents windows, now they do it online. But it's still the same con.

MrsGSR

Thanks for your replies,
I can never understand where they get the testimonials from!

ColinAllCars

They also have another site http://www.mshopus.com/ for the USA.

Where its free to join.

"Does It Cost Anything To Join?

No. Becoming a Paid Shopper is 100% free. All that is required is that you complete offers, try new products and give us feedback on the services you receive. No payment will be needed."

geordie_joe

MrsGSR wrote: »

I can never understand where they get the testimonials from!

If they are the type that puts a bit of effort into it, they make them up. If they are lazy, they visit other sites and "borrow" their testimonials.

A good tip here, whenever you see a "dodgy" looking site that has testimonials, copy a large part of some of them and paste it into the google search box, then see how many other dodgy looking web sites have exactly the same testimonial.

geordie_joe

ColinAllCars wrote: »

They also have another site http://www.mshopus.com/ for the USA.

Where its free to join.

"Does It Cost Anything To Join?

No. Becoming a Paid Shopper is 100% free. All that is required is that you complete offers, try new products and give us feedback on the services you receive. No payment will be needed."

The USA site sends you a spreadsheet with affiliate links to offers, if you click those links and complete the offers the site makes money.

The UK site doesn't have any real work, so makes it's money from the joining fee.

PS. I'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs, I'm just posting so that if in the future someone else comes across that site and searches for more information on it, they will come across this thread and see the truth.

antispam246

my mum just told me she "stupidly" joined this and paid the fee. I've researched it for her and ended up here, she paid on CC, should she cancel it?