February 14th, 2008
Shoppers' View is a Mystery Shopping company based in Grand Rapids Michigan that is fully certified by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA). You can view our listing here. We have recently become aware of a scam utilizing our logo and part of our name by an organization basing themselves out of Canada. In no way whatsoever are client, customer or employee records compromised or even at risk in any way. This fraudulent company, who has used the Shoppers' View likeness, is being legally pursued and updates will be posted here as the situation develops. You can find more info about this scam on the MSPA website here.
If for any reason you receive a letter in the mail soliciting cash, donation, or other form of financial compensation claiming to be from "Shoppers' View" or "Shoppers' View Research Group" please contact us immediately, as we never send out any sort of requests like that. Your help is greatly appreciated in helping to shut down this scam.
In a Feb. 21 news release, the Competition Bureau in Canada announced that it, along with law enforcement partners with the Toronto Strategic Partnership, arrested two alleged operators of a mystery shopping check scam.
In the mystery shopping version of the scam, consumers were asked to cash a cashier’s check and wire the money back to a specified address, while conducting a brief evaluation of the wiring service. In some cases, they were also asked to conduct evaluations of other retailers. The “reward” to consumers was keeping a portion of the original check as payment. In reality, the check bounced several days later and the consumer was held liable for the entire amount of the money wired to the international address – typically between $1,000 and $5,000.
Since the MSPA first learned of the scam in late 2005, it has made contact with the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Competition Bureau and Phonebusters, all of which were involved in the cross-border partnership that searched for the scammers.
Read the full press release from the MSPA: here
An example of the letter that is being sent out by this fraudulent company is located here: (Document)
Again, in no way is Shoppers' View linked with this company who has stolen our likeness, and in no way has any client, customer or employee data been compromised. We will provide further updates as the situation developes.
Thank you
- Shoppers' View Mgt.
1-800-264-5677