One of the challenges trying to find mystery shopping gigs is figuring out whether the mystery shopping service provider is reputable. You want to know that you’ll actually be paid for the work you perform. We created this website to help you with that. Today, we provide a fraud alert for Optics Research (Optic Innovation Research Inc).
First contact
Optics Research (Optic Innovation Research Inc) contacts you by email. They word the email so that it seems like they’re responding to a job you applied for on Indeed. They even adjust the job title to match recent searches you may have performed on Indeed.
So your first hint of fraud is the way they’ve contacted you. If you have not applied to a job with them, then you shouldn’t receive an email in which they reference your application.
That’s fraud alert number one for Optics Research.
Context
In their email, they outline the key aspects of the “job”:
- Part-time position – “… great opportunity for professionals that are currently working and post-secondary students that wants to make an additional income.” You’ll notice they have grammar mistakes in the email wording.
- Compensation – $300.00 per evaluation with up to three evaluations available every week (each evaluation takes approximately two hours). Does this seem too good to be true? You are correct!
- Qualifications
- Able to maintain strict confidentiality
- Excellent observation skills and keen attention to detail
- Effective communication skills
- Able to be objective and unbiased
- Ability to follow directions, memorise scenarios and recall them as needed
- Access to a computer
- Duties – assess whether pre-established codes and guidelines are being followed and complete a survey with your assessment
Hopefully, at this point, you’re very skeptical because it appears you could get paid up to $900.00 each week! That’s simply not reasonable for this type of work. Fraud alert number two for Optics Research!
But they do did have a website (www.opticsresearch.ca) and it does seem to contain all the information you would expect – including a physical address and a phone number.
Next contact
If you answered the first email then you’ll receive a response with a bit more detail. They tell you that once you’re approved for the position then you can start immediately – the fact you need to be “approved” makes it seem more official. They also provide a bit more information:
- Your payment would be sent weekly (but they don’t explain how)
- Your evaluations would occur at restaurants, banks, grocery stores, etc.
- An evaluation package would be sent to you by courier containing:
- Instructions
- Assigned locations
- Evaluation report for completion
- Certified cheque – This should now have you on full scam alert!
- A mandatory 24 hours vulnerable sector check is required before you can be approved for your first gig
You’re asked to respond to the email with your name, address, phone number, age, and sex. Then they would have the 24 hours vulnerable sector check completed for you and let you know if you’ve been accepted.
Assessment
At this point, you should be even more skeptical. The biggest fraud tip-off here is the certified cheque. Legitimate companies don’t send you cheques and ask you to cash them. Fraud alert number three – strike out!
We did not proceed any further because we didn’t want anyone on our team to give out personal information for the sake of investigating this company. However, it would seem logical the next steps for this company would be:
- They send you a package by courier congratulating you on your acceptance for the job
- They include instructions and a location for you to complete your first evaluation
- You’re asked to cash the certified cheque and use a small portion of it to make a purchase at your evaluation location to confirm you were there
- Then you’d be asked to wire the remaining funds, the portion you did not use, back to them along with your evaluation
Weeks later, your bank would inform you the cheque was fraudulent and you’ve lost cash and your dignity.
Better Business Bureau (BBB)
There was no reference to this company at the Better Business Bureau at this time. But these types of companies often change their names frequently to avoid detection.
Fraud Clues
So the clues to watch for if you think something might be a scam:
- You’re contacted randomly – you did not apply but receive a communication that implies you did
- Poor grammar – very often these emails contain grammar and spelling mistakes
- Crazy compensation – you get excited when you see how much you’ll be paid. In fact, you can’t believe it’s true! Well, it isn’t. Mystery shopping simply does not pay that much.
- Security check – they’ve referenced a security check that is only required if you’ll be working with vulnerable individuals (children, disabled, elderly, etc.)
- Certified cheque – legitimate companies do NOT send you cheques before you’ve done any work
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Summary
As we mentioned, we did not proceed to the point of receiving the certified cheque so we can’t tell you what the communications would have been at that point. And, we cannot tell you, absolutely, that this company is truly fraudulent.
But we urge you to consider the old adage, “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is (too good to be true).” We hope this saves you some money and embarrassment.
Have you worked with this company?
What were your experiences?
Do you agree with this evaluation or have some suggestions of your own?
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