Today I received an advance check from a OnionInsights Mystery Shopping Experts. One of their addresses is Unit 142, 587 Austin Place, Bronx NY 10455. Is this a legitimate company? Has anyone worked for them? Before I send in this so called contract, I would like to know if anybody has done business with them and how they paid or were treated. Thanks

Advance checks are an immediate red flag that you are being scammed. Mystery shops pay AFTER the work is performed and the amounts of payment generally are in the $5-$15 range for new shoppers. Legitimate companies also require that you register on their website before they will contact you and YOU are the instigator to request or self assign shops.

Scammers use the names of legitimate companies and Onion Insights is a legitimate off shore company. But they would not contact you out of the blue, they would not send you checks and they are not located in the Bronx. Do not attempt to cash the checks as they are bogus, will bounce and will cost you time and money to clean up the mess.

What Flash said. It's a scam.

SCAM SCAM SCAM

I just received a check in the mail from Onion Insight and it was for over 3 thousand dollars, I know it is a scam. I received two money orders for over 9 hundred dollars from another company over a month ago and never did anything with them. These people need to be locked up, it is a shame because you are scared to sign up to do mystery shopping. Is there any real companies out there if so, how do you find them.

You have made a good first step, Tired. This is a forum of folks who are working with legitimate companies. At the bottom of each page of the forum is a link called "The Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies" that will take you to a list of links to websites of legitimate companies to register and links that will also take you to shopper discussions of those companies. There is also a list of legitimate companies at the MSPA website mysteryshop.org, which is the trade association of the companies that offer mystery shops. There is also a list of legitimate companies at Volition.com, which is another shopper forum. You will find lots of overlap on the lists, though there are supposedly some 400 companies out there. The list here is around 200.

- "Tired" - ALSO -

This is a public forum. You are making, unfortunately, a very common mistake.

Please never, ever use your email address for a "Username". Create something unique for yourself.

Now your email address is "out there", very easy for scammers & spammers to harvest it.

Please do a search for "Jacob" and then send him a Private Message asking if he would please change your Username to something else you selected.

I also got the letter from this company along with a check for over $3000. It is a scam. I wonder if they are getting our info off from here for more of us getting this "offer". Just wondering.

I don't think so Cindy.

You are getting "live" mail, correct?

Look at the # of posts from the people who are saying they got these checks. ONE post. These people get a check snail mailed to their home, get online, google the name, and THEN find this forum to ask about the check.

To get snail mail from these companies, scammers are somehow getting street addresses - and Jacob doesn't ask for your street/home address. So, there's no way those big check western union scams are coming from this Forum.

I've never ever gotten a snail mail check from anyone for posting on forums. I've been posting on forums since 1996. What I have gotten from being online was spam. So I use several email addresses:

1. My "junk-email" - yup, just as it sounds. A yahoo email I've had for almost 20 years now. I use it for Craigs List, Freecycle, signing up for those "rewards" programs for shops I do, etc.

2. My banking email. No one gets it, except my financial institutions. I use it exclusively for paying bills and banking. So if I get spam in there, it's coming from one of the banks or credit card companies and I let them know it. I've gotten just ONE spam in there since 2005.

3. My domain email. I love domain email addresses. *laugh* I have two .com sites. I can set up 250 email addresses for each domain. (silly, I know, who uses that many email addresses??) I use one specifically for mystery shopping, and I can "white list" addresses - so my domain/hosting company can block everything except those I say can send me emails. I also use my domain email for Facebook, Admin, my website, and family specifically.

I would love to know how the Western Union Scammers are harvesting street addresses. I think a lot of it is simply from people getting online, sending in those "registration forms" (like for small appliances when you buy one), using Craigs List, various surveys, etc. I don't think people realize how much their street address IS "out there".



cindy0614 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I also got the letter from this company along with
> a check for over $3000. It is a scam. I wonder
> if they are getting our info off from here for
> more of us getting this "offer". Just wondering.

Obviously folks are leaving name and street address somewhere to get the checks and it is not the forum!

I am rather suspicious that the folks receiving checks responded first to an email 'job offer'. Certainly I get those types of spam in my junk mail. I feel pretty sure that my work email was compromised because I was at one time corresponding with a shopper with a whole lot of questions using it. Her 'gratitude' was expressed by forwarding along to me those 'cute' or 'inspirational' emails with jokes, kitties and such that too many folks just send along to everyone in their email list. I could see the multiple generations of email addresses as the piece of fluff got forwarded along from one recipient to the next group. One would only need to be the recipient of one such email to harvest email addresses and spam from there.

OMG! I had to laugh at this:

forwarding along to me those 'cute' or
> 'inspirational' emails with jokes, kitties and
> such that too many folks just send along to
> everyone in their email list.

Do you know my absolutely adorable but-not-email-savvy-Mom-In-Law?? She does this ALL the time! That's why, she only has my "junk" email. Don't get me wrong, I love her to death, she's wonderful - but gosh durn it, please, please don't forward me everyone's email address! (and mine then too!)

I think I finally managed to train my own mom not to do that. Now my dad, I wouldn't trust him with a super-virus-protected-locked-up-computer-dedicated-connection!





Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Obviously folks are leaving name and street
> address somewhere to get the checks and it is not
> the forum!
>
> I am rather suspicious that the folks receiving
> checks responded first to an email 'job offer'.
> Certainly I get those types of spam in my junk
> mail. I feel pretty sure that my work email was
> compromised because I was at one time
> corresponding with a shopper with a whole lot of
> questions using it. Her 'gratitude' was expressed
> by forwarding along to me those 'cute' or
> 'inspirational' emails with jokes, kitties and
> such that too many folks just send along to
> everyone in their email list. I could see the
> multiple generations of email addresses as the
> piece of fluff got forwarded along from one
> recipient to the next group. One would only need
> to be the recipient of one such email to harvest
> email addresses and spam from there.

Indeed, my brother insists on forwarding to me joke lists that he also forwards to 40 or so other folks. He only gets my junk email address. I have teased him about the practice saying such things as 'in case you disappear some day at least I will have the email addresses of all of your friends to ask if they have heard from you'. He just doesn't get it.

Our attention has been drawn by certain members of the public that they have received communication through emails from someone claiming they need mystery shoppers and, requesting the contact info from the recipients. Also these said individual(s) are also wrongfully using our company's name (Onion Insights) to lure innocent members of the public to fall into this trap.
We would like to categorically state that these communications are purely made with intend to defraud the public and we have neither asked for any payment for mystery shopping activities nor have we sent out advance payment cheques to any individuals. Also, we are a legitimate company fully incorporated in India and nowhere in the United States of America. We do not have any offices also in the United States of America.
We urge the public not to be misled by such communications.



miterite Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Today I received an advance check from a
> OnionInsights Mystery Shopping Experts. One of
> their addresses is Unit 142, 587 Austin Place,
> Bronx NY 10455. Is this a legitimate company? Has
> anyone worked for them? Before I send in this so
> called contract, I would like to know if anybody
> has done business with them and how they paid or
> were treated. Thanks

Thank you Flash for offering this information. Yes, its true - we are a legitimate company and a MSPA member operating our business from India - and we do not ask for any kind of payment for Mystery Shoppers to conduct shops for us.



Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Advance checks are an immediate red flag that you
> are being scammed. Mystery shops pay AFTER the
> work is performed and the amounts of payment
> generally are in the $5-$15 range for new
> shoppers. Legitimate companies also require that
> you register on their website before they will
> contact you and YOU are the instigator to request
> or self assign shops.
>
> Scammers use the names of legitimate companies and
> Onion Insights is a legitimate off shore company.
> But they would not contact you out of the blue,
> they would not send you checks and they are not
> located in the Bronx. Do not attempt to cash the
> checks as they are bogus, will bounce and will
> cost you time and money to clean up the mess.

Received a check today for $995.30 from LAREDO MARKETING, located in Niagara Falls, NY
Now I have no idea how or where they received my contact information but this is the 5th check I have received this month. Anyone out there ever here of these scam artists' other than OnionInsights……

Since scammers can claim they are anyone or any company to con you into parting you with your money, you need to just use common sense and the old saying about things sounding too good to be true. But there have always been scams and con artists and they have always preyed on those they could deceive. If you collect up enough checks from Laredo Marketing you might consider wallpapering your bathroom with them.

How do I go about stopping this company?? I am new to this ...

Very simple. If you receive a check by US mail, turn it over to the USPS along with all enclosures and the envelope. If you receive a check by FedEx you can turn it over to your local police. Alternatively to either of these, drop everything into a ziplock bag to prevent/reduce additional fingerprints and smearing and file a report at ftc.gov. Or alternative to any of the above put everything in the trash. No legitimate company will send you a check before you perform the work and no legitimate company will send you a check to wire transfer some of the funds along to someone else. The wire transfer is a key element of parting you with your money as the check/money order will eventually bounce.

If they call you to ask about when you plan to do the work, simply tell them you have turned over all documentation and the check to authorities and hang up.

Scam

April 11, 2012

Get this out to all you can --- this is a SCAM!

1) They are all but impossible to reach by telephone.
2) When you do reach them - they will want you to fax over the signed contract and call them back - which will take another 2 days.
3) Once you reach them again, they will look you up and tellyou to cash the cehck, make a copy of it - will ask you which bank you are going to and after cashing it - call them the next morning for your assignment.
4) Again - you won't be able to reach them
5) After 2-3 days later, if you reach them, they will give you 3 assignments and ask you to verify your funds cashed are available to work with for your mystery shopping
6) Ta-DA -- your bank will be contacting you at the same time to tell you the check cashed is NSF....thus you have just incurred an NSF fee with the bank!
7) You will call them back - again 5-6 times over a 1-2hr period until you finally reach someone. At this time, they will tell you that their supervisor will be calling you back and trying to re-issue the funds back into your account. At the same time, they will tell you that you have attitude and are probably not a good candidate for customer shopping......HAHAHAHA -- the joke is now on you!
This is most definitely a SCAM.......they are not legit and will not answer any questions you have at all.....

Best of luck to you .....

SPAM "ginaC"

(Ironically, the link is for payday loans! Now talk about a SCAM!)