Real Reviews by Real People of Mystery Shopping Sites

Hi, my name is Scott Welch and I'm one of the founders of Top Site Reviews a website that reviews various online opportunities to try to make sure that people don't fall for the fraudulent or scam sites (I myself have been a victim in the past; this is why I got started doing this). I also created a blog called Paid Survey Site Reviews which is a companion and sister site to this blog. That blog is dedicated to reviewing Paid Survey websites so that ordinary people like you and me can give feedback on which paid survey sites actually made them money and which were scams and a waste of time. In similar fashion, this blog is dedicated to reviewing the Mystery Shopping industry to tell which sites/companies are worth joining and which are just garbage. For those who don't know, 'Mystery Shopping' is a multi-million dollar industry employed by almost every major business in the nation. Mystery shoppers are paid to shop at stores, eat at restaurants, watch movies, and then report back to the company that employed them how they were treated while they were shopping (or dining, or whatever the specific mystery shopping job entailed). In this way businesses can monitor and enhance their customer service. Mystery Shopping is a real business and I myself have done it on many occasions (I prefer the jobs that entail going to the movie theater as I'm not as much of a 'mall' person and I love movies, but that's neither here nor there). Companies and businesses are constantly seeking to recruit new mystery shoppers and the jobs themselves usually take less than an hour to do (sometimes a lot less). Plus on occasion the mystery shopper gets to keep what he was being paid to shop for free. The problem is that (like so many other things on the internet) it's hard for someone who's interested in becoming a mystery shopper to know which websites and online services really have REAL mystery shopping opportunities and which are just out to rip people off. So I've put together this blog to relate my own experiences and to invite others to share their own reviews of which mystery shopping sites are for real and which ones are not.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

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 Shopper
Shadow 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 Dollars
Inbox 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 Earnings
Send 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.
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