Be alert about the following scams reported to MSPA:

• US shoppers are being approached via email by a person called William Spalding who claims to be a Independent Hiring and Evaluation Consultant Multi-Value Strategies. This is a scam an NOT connected to any of our MSPA members who companies name looks simular. Please do not take any action to start communicating, cash checks or accept anassignement that sounds to good to be true....as it is. They are falsly use a logo of our MSPA member company Multi Value who are located in Europe.
• Several shoppers in the USA received a letter signed by the name Thomas James or Collins Hickman or several others, use the logo of MSPA EUROPE and this letter includs a postal money order of USPA. There are instruction to collect the money order and buy iTunes gift cards. THIS IS A SCAM, MSPA does not know theses people, MSPA as association does not provide any mystery shopping projects and will never ask shoppers directly for assigenments or to colelct money orders. 
• http://www.globalsmartworld.com/   - this website or the company name is not connected to any of the MSPA member companies. This website is a copy of an actual website, the logo is replaced as well as the name. don't respond to emails you receive from this company.
• .....read further

MSPA would like to remind all shoppers to be extra careful when receiving emails that appear to be from mystery shopping companies that they do not work for regularly, or that look different in style from those that they usually receive from companies they often carry out work for. Also, we would urge shoppers to never trust emails from companies that send emails offering to post out money (usually cheques) before completion of work.

As is the case in many industries today, fraudsters are continuing to target mystery shoppers in an attempt to make ‘easy’ money. These scammers operate by pretending to be MSPA, or a MSPA member company, and offering work to shoppers. The work offered will usually involve cashing a cheque they will send to the shopper, and/or asking the shopper to wire money elsewhere. More recently, salaries have been offered to shoppers for completing higher volumes of evaluations.

More and more shoppers are now falling victims to these scams, due to the fact that they are not paying close enough attention to the emails they receive. Although the emails can often be of good quality, and may have MSPA and/or mystery shopping company logos included, there are always clues that the emails are not genuine.
 

Please use this checklist if you have any doubts about the validity of an email that you have received:

• Check the email address of the person writing to you. It should always match the website address of the mystery shopping company.
• Telephone or email the company using the website form (or contact us page) on the official website to ask about the email received before taking any other action.
• Never click a link within an email that you do not trust is real.
• If you are unsure if a provider is legitimate, check the company information on the MSPA EU website www.mspa-eu.org. All MSPA members’ details are listed on this site.

Some important details to remember:

• Mystery shopping companies DON’T offer a salary.
• They REQUIRE you to register an application form within their administration system.
• They NEVER send an assignment offer to a shopper who does not already have log in details and a password for their system.
• They ALWAYS allow you to view your profile on their system, and check your shopper history with them.
• They will NEVER ask you to pay to carry out work for them.
• They will ALWAYS carry out a briefing with you, usually over the phone, before you carry out any work for them.
• They will ALWAYS provide a detailed evaluation form and completion instructions on how to carry out the evaluation.
• They will ALWAYS instruct you how to use the reporting system on their site.

IF YOU HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED CHEQUES OR MONEY ORDERS FROM A SCAMMER, YOU CAN REPORT IT TO:

Europe

• The European Consumer Centres Network, who has issued a report regarding Fraud in Europe - Fraud in cross-border e-commerce.pdf

Belgium

• You can now report internet scams/attempted scams online: www.ecops.be

Ireland

• You can now report internet scams/attempted scams online: www.garda.ie

The Netherlands:

• You can now report internet scams/attempted scams online: www.fraudehelpdesk.nl

United Kingdom

• You can now report internet scams/attempted scams online with Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud and internet crime reporting centre: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

USA:

• The National Consumers League at http://www.fraud.org via the online complaint form. In addition, you can report scams for further investigation to the Federal Trade Commission by clicking here: Federal Trade Commission Scam Reporting.

There are a large number of youtube videos viable to watch on this subject. The link below is an example of the type of content available on youtube:... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKkJF7DtYXY&feature=related

►Be alert about the following scams reported to MSPA (19 September 2017):