This week MSPA has been informed by one of our members that an international evaluator fraud is taking place. Therefore we’d like to share all the details we’ve received and to alert and inform you all. It looks like it is mainly focused on reaching out to evaluators from Turkey and we are not quite sure what the purpose or financial benefits are, however it clearly can and does harm the integrity of several companies, and the industry as a whole.

Scam alert!  Reported to MSPA on 19 September 2017:

Please be aware of the following situation that has been brought to our attention:
Someone with a US phone number + 1 (641) 316-0393 added STAFF as a group on Whatsapp and sent unnamed messages in Turkish yesterday evening.
The phone number is from Iowa, United States according to the area code.
The person has poor Turkish written skills, so we struggled to understand the meaning of the messages.

• This fake group follows the jobs of all mystery shopping companies and posts advertisements on Facebook.  (They don't write the client names, they write only sector names on the advertisements (gas / grocery / retail).)
• They collect CVs and applications for the projects.
• They apply for the shops of all mystery shopping companies with fake mystery shopper accounts.
• When they are assigned, they make the visits done by their own members.
• When the reports are completed, they say the reports were excluded and they don't pay the shop fees.

SCAM FORMAT

• Person contacts evaluators via WhatsApp with a US phone number
• Seemingly from a fake mystery shopping company named BGMG – featuring Mr. Uzman Gizli Müşteri Grubu on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gizlimusteribgmg/?fref=mentions
• There is more than one FB page linked to the organization https://www.facebook.com/groups/gizlimusteribgmg/ -  https://www.facebook.com/exctdenetim/ - https://www.facebook.com/dax.icgiyim and they operate with 2 company names - Exct Audit and BGMG Audit.
• An Evaluator (not one registered with the official MSPA member company) completed several MS at a client in Turkey for this company … but was then told the reports were excluded and there would be no payment
• The Evaluator threatens to contact client

We advise you to inform your evaluators, staff and if possible include this on your list of fraudulent activities to monitor. Updates will be sent to you as soon as they become available, and all MSPA regions will post this information on their website.