Comments on: Irish Lottery? Sorry, you didn’t win!

By: line machine online on slot

line machine online on slot — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:52:22 +0000

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By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:37:00 +0000

Canadian lotteries, eh? How foreign and exotic! Get me some of that!

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:03:42 +0000

You would think a person who won the “Irish lottery” would think – “hey, when did I play the lottery?” And then realize they never did.

By: plonkee

plonkee — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:13:00 +0000

Like guinness416 I’ve entered the real Irish lottery and haven’t won anything either.

And you’re not the only girl that gets those ads for mis-spelled pharmaceuticals. I do sometimes wonder whether I’m giving off the wrong vibe.

By: Secret Shopper

Secret Shopper — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:21:14 +0000

Most of these scams I have seen involve much larger amounts of money–often thousands of dollars. The “shopper” is told to keep $300 for a couple of hours of work, and wire $2500 to $4500 to someone in Canada.

These people are not being scammed by mystery shopping companies. They are being scammed by the same slime who run these other scams. Just because someone puts up a site saying they are a mystery shopping company, that doesn’t mean that they are. Anyone can put up a web site claiming to be anything.

A good way to verify if the company is legitimate is to see if they are a member of the MSPA. Although many legitimate companies are not members, if they do belong you can trust that they are for real. http://www.mysteryshop.org/shoppers

The scammers usually solicit their victims by claiming they found their resume online at a job hunting site, so watch out for this if you have your resume posted online.

Also, use some common sense. Why would a company send a valid check for hundreds or thousands of dollars to someone they have no relationship with? The recipient could simply cash the check and keep the money. These checks are always bogus.

Mystery shopping is legitimate, but its popularity has certainly brought out the scammers.

Cathy Stucker
Author of The Mystery Shopper’s Manual

By: Fabulously Broke

Fabulously Broke — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:57:26 +0000

Wow a new blog layout.. how long have I been away!?!?!?

By: mrsmicah

mrsmicah — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:04:08 +0000

Come to think of it Becky, I think there’s another up and coming scam which involves Craigslist and other internet sales.

The person says that they cut the cashier’s check or money order when planning to buy it from someone else. But your price is lower, so they want to buy it from you. So they’ll mail the check and can you wire/mail/whatever the extra back? Along with the other.

Oh yeah, but the check is fake and you’ve already send them the item and some $20-50-100.

By: Becky

Becky — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:58:54 +0000

I also can’t believe that people still fall for these scams. That is sooo frustrating! I had never heard of the mystery shopping one, though. Thanks for the info

By: RacerX

RacerX — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:18:10 +0000

There is nothing worse then praying on the ignorance of others. This is the Internet version of Snake Oil.

However, there has to be some level of personal responcibility as well.There is a great artical in the current Fortune talking about a security company added an ad to an internet sites rotation ads after they touted “They make sure every ad on their network is legit.”

The security company placed this ad:

“Is your Computer clean of Viruses? – Want some?”

The ad ran 100,000+ times and…over 500 people clicked on it!!

By: PiggyBankBlues

PiggyBankBlues — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:17:47 +0000

i don’t win anything, not even those big bears you get by tossing rings onto milk bottles…