What I can Personally Recommend

I've been asked constantly by readers to list my top picks of which mystery shopping sites are legitimate and should be joined. I'm always surprised at this because I've had my top picks listed over at the Top Site Reviews Mystery Shopping webpage for some time. But just in case you missed it there, I'll go ahead and list my top choices here too.

Keep in mind this is a fluid and changing list. I'm not married to my choices and if a new mystery shopping site pops up that really impresses me, chances are I'll add it to the list. At the same time, if a mystery shopping site I have listed suddenly starts sucking, off the list it will go, pronto. So, without further ado, here's my picks...

My #1 Pick - Secret Shopping Center.comThis is without question the best mystery shopping site out there. They have a database of companies seeking mystery shoppers that is bigger than any other mystery shopping site, and it's filled with the genuine article - companies that are legit and really do have mystery shopping jobs available. Secret Shopping Center.com has a load of bonus stuff for it's members (including a big section on paid surveys which comes free) and also has a 100% money back guarantee, so if you join and find out mystery shopping isn't for you there isn't really no risk.


My #2 Pick - Shop Until You DropOk, forget the hokey name (which might be the worst in the industry, lol) Shop Until You Drop is one of the best mystery shopping sites out there. It's been around for a while now, and is well organized with a fairly decent directory of mystery shopping companies. They also offer a Shopping Assignment Database that can be searched by City, State or Postal code and have an instant email notification service of Jobs Available in your area. This was my #1 pick for a good long while until Secret Shopping Center.com came along, and is a very good mystery shopping site.


My #3 Pick - Get Paid 2 ShopThis one is the first I ever joined, and has been around for quite a while. They're pretty good, fairly good directory of mystery shopping companies, good customer service, and a 60 day money-back guarantee. I don't think they're the best (obviously I would have listed them in the #1 slot) but they are a valuable resource for anyone serious about mystery shopping.


My #4 Pick - Paid For FreePaid For Free isn't just a mystery shopping site, and that's actually the problem. It's a huge site with resources for all kinds of real opportunities for those who want to work from home, whether it's being paid for doing surveys, paid for driving your car, or numerous other fields. They have a fairly good section on getting paid to shop (mystery shopping) which is why I include it on this list. The problem is that while there is nothing wrong with their site, they don't focus on mystery shopping very much. And the other sections of their site are just 'ok', nothing to rave about. All in all it's a good site to join, and the mystery shopping section is fairly good, but I can't rate this any higher than a #4 pick.


So there's my picks in the mystery shopping industry. I do want to make it clear that I do much more in the paid survey industry (You can see my reviews of paid survey sites here) than I do mystery shopping, so I very much welcome comments and recommendations from others on what your own experiences have been.

Mystery Shopping Sites that are Free to Join?

I've been asked a few times by readers whether there are any mystery shopping services which are free to join. The answer is that there are only a very few of the free mystery shopping sites which are legit - the vast majority are simply interested in capturing your email and sending you a boatload of spam.

It's kind of funny because in the paid survey industry there are a lot of pretty legit free sites you can join (see my other blog: Paid Survey Reviews for some examples) but in the mystery shopping industry there just really aren't that many free sites that are legit.

Here's a short list of some that I think are ok:

1 - Shadow ShopperShadow Shopper isn't really a free site, it's only free to join their basic membership. I still recommend giving it a look as it will give beginners as chance to 'see behind the curtain' and take a look at what's available in the mystery shopping business.


2 - Inbox DollarsInbox Dollars is a great service that's free to join, and I've recommended it to many people. It isn't exclusively a mystery shopping site, in fact it's more of a paid email service (most emails pay between 2 and 5 cents each). They also offer paid surveys to their members and the occasional mystery shopping job, which is why I have it included on this list. They're legit, won't load your inbox up with a lot of spam (and what they do send you you get paid to read) and they also pay all new members $5.00 just for signing up which is a nice bonus.


3 - Send EarningsSend Earnings is another service similar to Inbox Dollars that is primarily a paid email and paid survey service that also offers the occasional mystery shopping job to its members. Again, this is not a mystery shopping site per se; they just sometimes delve into that area. Joining is free and takes less than a minute to do, and all new members earn $3.00 just for signing up.


So there's a little sampling of some legit sites that are free to join. I'm fully aware that it's not much of a big list, and I hope to see some comments from other people about other free-to-join sites that are legit and could be added to this list.

Mystery Shopping Sites that are Scams

Here's the meat and potatoes of this blog. I'm looking for comments from real people about their negative experiences with websites or companies in the mystery shopping industry. This is the place to vent about the bad sites, and I invite everyone not to hold anything back. At the same time I want real stories of things that happened to you, not some urban legend that you heard happened to a friend of a friend.

Knowing which mystery shopping sites are fraudulent is every bit as important as knowing which ones are legit. The scam sites are a waste of time and money, and sometimes the fraudulent sites will use your private information against you.

$10 Challenge - I'll Pay You $10 Myself

Alright, this doesn't have much to do with mystery shopping, but it's something I'm excited about and want to share with as many people as possible.

As many of you know, I got my start making money online from paid surveys, and really I still devote a good portion of my day to taking surveys (I generally only do the ones sent to me by email and skip phone surveys nowadays; only got so much time in the day). So I'm very into the paid survey market, which is why I started the Paid Survey Reviews Blog which in turn inspired me to start this companion blog for mystery shopping sites.

Anyway, in an effort to get more people into the paid survey market, me and my friends from Top Site Reviews Webpage have put together a special promotion, where we'll pay anyone who completes our challenge $10.00 (we pay using Paypal, so you'd better have a valid email address if you're going to do this). You can find out more details of how this thing works at:

The $10 Paid Survey Challenge Page

Basically how it works is we've assembled a list of several legitimate paid survey companies, and anyone who signs up to 20 of them we'll pay $10.00 within 24 hours of completing the challenge. All the companies we have on our list are legit (even if some of them are a little small) and 100% free to join (usually takes people less than 20 minutes to do), and the really great thing is that once you've registered with these companies you'll start recieving paid surveys too.

So go check it out and find out of the paid survey market is right for you too!

Mailing List

$20 Paid Survey for signing up to our Mailing List
Hi gang, Scott here. Just wanted to make sure there was a link on the blog here to join the mailing list we've got going over at Top Site Reviews. Joining our mailing list keeps you informed on all the paid survey sites we're discovering (and some of the scams to avoid). Plus, for a limited time as a special 'thank you' for joining our mailing list, you'll get immediate access to a $20 paid Survey (free, all demographics welcome). Join our Mailing List & Get Notified of our Featured Monthly Reviews based on user Feedback.

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