I received this email earlier today:

"Hello,

There is a mystery assessor job open, please reply if you are interested to partake in the shopping assignment we have offered.

Market Force is a company that conducts surveys and evaluates other companies. We get hired to go to other companies and act like customers in order to know how the staffs are handling their services in relation to their customers. Once we have a contract to do you would be directed to the company or outlet, and you would be given the funds you need to do the job either to purchase things or require services after which you would write a comment on the staffs activities and give a detailed record of your experience.

Examples of details you would forward to us are

1) How long it took you to get services.
2) Efficiency of the attendant.
3) Customer service professionalism.

Your identity would be kept confidential and you would be paid 200USD for every assignment you carry out.

Due to the volume of employment applications received, I will require the following details about yourself to filter applicants:

* Full Name
* Complete ( full ) postal address with zip code
* Daytime contact number

You would be given full details of every activity you have to carry out and your payment would be included in your acceptance mail. It is imperative you reply this email as soon as possible to signify your continued interest.

Thanking You,
Kevin Master."

This is great news!

I'm looking forward to doing those fast food shops, now at $200 a pop!

Ok ... now I can quit my day job as a Realtor, fatten myself up twice a day with FF shops, and make enough money to not only have a life but also to hire a physical trainer to help me work off these shops.

Yeah...right!

I'm having a hard time understanding this email... what exactly is it that they are offering? It starts off by saying that there is a job open and then that there is an assigment available. Then it goes on to mention 'employment' and $200 for every shop that you carry out. We've had shops at Informa go for well over $500, but $200 for every assignment? That just doesn't sound right.

Have you done shops with them before? It goes from sounding like a job offer to a welcome email and then to an email regarding your 'continued interest.' Do you guys get emails like this often?

It has to be a scam. People in the US don't refer to money as 200USD. If it wasn't for that, I might have actually read the rest of the thing and tried to scrutinize it more if it had been sent to me to see if maybe the $200 was a typo for $20. The whole thing is just weird though. I wouldn't send anything.

SCAM SCAM SCAM

Definitely is a scam. Just from the way it is written.

Yes, it's a scam and I think the OP knew that and posted for our entertainment.

What is sad is some people won't realize this is a scam. The e-mail senders use the name of a real company to draw people in. For everyone reading this: The e-mail at the top and all e-mails like this are SCAMS, even if they use the name of a real company.

Dylan-This is a typical MSing scam email, although this one is actually written much better than most.

The 5th word is the giveaway: "There is a mystery assessor job open"
Market Force would never, at least I don't think so, use the word 'assessor'.
Or, "partake"?

Did Market Force have a reply to these posts?

spaztck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is sad is some people won't realize this is a
> scam. The e-mail senders use the name of a real
> company to draw people in. For everyone reading
> this: The e-mail at the top and all e-mails like
> this are SCAMS, even if they use the name of a
> real company.

Even sadder when a mystery shopper falls for the scam. I was at the post office a while back when a woman came up to the counter with a Express Mail envelope and pulled out a check. She asked the clerk if she thought it was legit. I don't know why she thought the postal clerk could help her. I overheard her talking about how she was supposed to cash it at her bank and then go to Western Union, and I knew it was a scam.

I caught up with the woman after she left the counter, told her I was a mystery shopper and that she had fallen for a scam. I explained how it worked. She told me she was a mystery shopper, too, but when she saw this shop she thought it was just too good to pass up!

Sigh.

Inside Evaluators Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dylan-This is a typical MSing scam email, although
> this one is actually written much better than
> most.


Yeah that's what I was assuming but I did not want to attack the company as I am not that well acquainted with Market Force - I've only heard about them a little bit around this forum. I know that some MSC's are just terrible at writing emails which sometimes come off as scams so I always try and give them the benefit of the doubt. I've seen quite a few MS scams but none like this. It is definitely the strangest one I've seen by far.

I think if you "partake" you may receive a check from Nigeria for $200 USD!

Most of the scammers use legitimate MSCs in their emails. The irony in this one is great!

Perhaps they omitted the decimal point. It should have read, "2.00USD!"

Wow, the burger shop went from $7.50 to $200.00 !!!!!!!!!

You can usually spot these scams in the first sentence if you're a native born American who grew up hearing normal American English. "There is a mystery assessor job open, please reply if you are interested to partake in the shopping assignment we have offered"

Nobody in America would have written this sentence like this. Any email where the language flow and vocabulary doesn't "feel" right should be suspected.

People born in other English-speaking countries or for whom English is a second language might not catch on right away, but that is where common sense and logic needs to prevail.

Sadly, just enough people fall for these scams every year to keep them coming. I read an article once describing how there are internet cafes in Nigeria where the scammers go as if going to work each day. This IS their job, and they justify it morally because they assume everyone in America is rich (I wish!) and can spare what they scam us out of.

There are two glaring problems with that logic. The people who get scammed are the desperate who cannot spare the money and there is absolutely no moral justification for stealing unless it is a loaf of bread to feed a starving child.

I didn't say I agreed with them! Just saying what the article I read said.

Scammers are scum, no matter what twisted logic they use to justify what they do.

I didn't think for one minute that you agreed with them. I just had to comment on the twisted logic.

Finally Market Force has seen the light. After years of paying low, deactivating shoppers on a whim, lack of communication, they are paying everyone $200 for all shops. Yay!!! Best MSC ever. smiley face, smiley face.

But it's only the Nigerian branch of Market Force, and all the shops are in Lagos.

Are these bonused for air travel?

what was the email address this came from? I always look....


As for falling for the scam, it is one thing. ACTUALLY trying to cash the check is another......

If it was snail mail - was it written with a crayon?

Lisa Marie Roberson
2618 Banks Rd
Chattanooga, TN 37421
(423) 635-1416

I don't know why you posted all of your personal information, but since this is a public forum you are opening yourself up for scam artists. If you get an offer like the one we are joking about here, don't take it.

I have received many variations of this exact email, just with the company name changed in each one. The dead giveways are the language used, very stiff, and the promise of money before performing the shop. No legitimate company will pay money up front like this. Sad thing is, many people fall for this.