Are mystery shoppers for real or just some scam?

Q: I would like a way to earn some extra money, so I was looking into secret shopping. However, some of these sites look rather fishy...what are some trust worthy sites I can go to? I'm located in Atlanta, GA don't know if that makes a difference.

A: Some are real, and some are scams. Even the real ones do not pay well (I did it for a couple of years.) You can make pocket money doing it, and get a meal here and there, and a few gallons of gas, and so on... BUT: You cannot make a living at it. The scams are fairly easy to spot: They want a ton of information from you (before they hire you), and they may well be people trying to do identity theft.... (So: Be careful!) Also scams want you to pay for "lists" and so on. The real mystery shoppers pay you, and do not want money from you in advance. If a company has a real web-site, and also gives: 1) A real physical address, to which you can write a regular (USPO mailed)letter - and get a reply for it, BEFORE you give all your info on-line... And: 2) If they have a real 1-800 phone number, which either a real person answers, or eventually comes on the line to talk to, And also 3) A real working fax number... Then they are probably real. A real company will understand your ID theft worries, and give you things like Chamber of Commerce references of bank references.

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