NORTHWEST LOSS PREVENTION SHOPPER NEWSLETTER
December 2008

Hi shoppers!

You are receiving this newsletter because you are a registered shopper with Northwest Loss Prevention Consultants (http://www.nwlpc.com/)

Although we do not currently have shops in all 50 states we do have registered shoppers in all 50 states. You never know when we may have a new client with shops in your area.

We at Northwest Loss Prevention wants to wish all shoppers a happy holiday season and we look forward for a positive New Year! Please take the time this season to reflect on the things that are important. Not the material things but that of family and friends.

THE SCAM CONTINUES!

One of the services we offer is mystery shopping. Being in the business for 7 years I am aware of a major scam, a scam where innocent people have no recourse in recovering their money.

There are a couple of ways these scams are written, but they are basically the same. There offers come in the form of an email or posted on Craigslist.

These scam artists send you an offer that you can make hundreds of dollars every week by conducting mystery shops. Once you send them your name and address (no PO Boxes) they will in turn FedEx you a check. Once you receive the check you take the check and deposit it into your account. So, let’s say the check is for $3000. You then withdraw $2500. You keep $500 as your pay. You take the $2500 to Western Union and wire transfer to an address the scammer sends you. You MUST do this within 24 hours after you make the deposit. You then are told you are doing a “mystery” shop on a Western Union location to make this seem you are doing a mystery shop.

In 5-10 days you receive notice from your bank that the check you deposited is fake. You are then on the hook to the bank and the bank deducts the check you deposited from your account. You are out $2500.

Sometimes the scammer sends you a counterfeit money order that unless you know what you are looking for looks completely legit.

Because these emails originate from Nigeria or another country your chances to recover your money is almost nil,

Another think that makes this scam look real is they use the name of a legit mystery shopping company, so if you verify the company you get that “confident” feeling.

Mystery shopping is a legitimate business and we as an industry are doing everything we can to warn people of the scam If you know of anyone who gets one of these letters, or if you receive one, ignore it. If you want to forward it to me at doug@nwlpc.com I can confirm if it is real or fake. What I can tell you that a legitimate mystery shopping company will not send you a check to cash.

So, the next question is that you should be able to trace the address where FedEx sent your check from.

These people actually steal FedEx account numbers. When they send the check the scammer has “runners” in the United States who send you the check from a FedEx drop box, not from a physical address.

The following is an actual email we received:

Hello,

I am Kelly Brainham. I have a business proposal that will be of immense benefit to the both of us. I have acquired your email address as a person who is actively involved in or is looking for a part time job from home to compliment current earnings. Would you like to work online from home and get paid weekly ? If you will like to work online from home and get paid weekly without leaving or affecting your present job?

JOB DESCRIPTION

1. Receive payments from Clients

2. Cash Payments

3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed.

4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to ( Payment is to be forwarded by Western Union Transfer Minus Western Union Charges ).

No start up payment, No tax involved, Bank Account Details or Personal information other than Your Name, Address and Phone number is no needed.Strictly Legal. Therefore, if you are interested in joining this venture kindly email back with the following details to start job immediately.

** First & Last Name:

** Physical Address: ( NO P.O Boxes )

** Apt, Suite, Floor #:

** City:

** State:

** Zip Code:

** Country:

** Sex:

** Cell Phone #: Home Phone #: , Work Phone #

** Age:

** Nationality:

** Current Job:

** Best You Receive Call:

Approval email will be sent to you as soon as your application is approved.

Kind Regards,

Kelly Brainham

Although there has been no evidence that anyone will visit your home I would warn against answering these ads just for curiosity sake because they now have our address.

NWLPC MOVES TO 100% PAYPAL

Up until now NWLPC gave shoppers a choice to be paid by check or by PayPal. Effective with January 15th payments all shoppers will be paid using PayPal.

There are several reasons for this decision.

Benefit to Shoppers

• Receive payments on the 15th of each month
• Have access to your PayPal from anywhere
• Not having to wait to receive your check
• Prevent checks from being lost in the mail

If you are currently a shopper for NWLPC you will need to sign up for PayPal (unless you are already registered) then go into your shopper profile and update your information to include your PayPal email address. If you are not registered with PayPal on the 15th of January we have to withhold your payment until you are registered. This will delay your payment for 30 days.

PayPal is safe and secure and is of no cost to the shopper.

If you have any questions please email doug@nwlpc.com

INCREASE YOUR SHOPPING OPPORTUNITIES!

First, ignore any ads you get to where you have to pay to be a shopper. If a mystery shopping company asks for a registration fee it is up to you but these companies are not a member of the MSPA and there are plenty of mystery shopping jobs out there where you do not have to “pay to shop”.

Such sites as Shadow Shopper are not mystery shopping companies. We do recommend if you want to invest that you do sign with Shadow Shopper because many mystery shopping companies do recruit from there. Go to www.Shadowshopper.com

Some free sites are Volition www.volition.com, JobSlinger www.jobslinger.com and the Mystery Shopping Providers Association www.mysteryshopping.org. You will need to register with the company offering the shop, but there are thousands of jobs on Volition, Jobslinger and the Mystery Shopping Providers (MSPA) websites.

Since I did mention Volition, this is a great site to network with other shoppers, get advice from other shoppers about shops, etc. What you can’t do is to ask “Who shops who”. There are other guidelines as well that is spelled out when you register with Volition.

Another way to get more assignments, and better assignments, is to take your time in writing your reports. Proof read your report, stay within the guidelines of the shop and run a spell check. Reports that come in with numerous spelling and grammatical may be rejected or sent back to you for revisions. A report with numerous errors sends a red flag to editors as to the accuracy of the entire shop. Each MS company has different guidelines so what may be acceptable with one company may not with another company.

A free download for spell checking online forms is Hotlingo.

Download Hotlingo at www.hotlingo.com

Until next month have a safe New Year and here's to more mystery shopping opprotunities!

We want to hear from you! If there are any topics you would like addressed or if you have any questions for our upcoming newsletter please direct those to doug@nwlpc.com.

to unsubscribe please email doug@nwlpc.com. In the subject line put Unsubscribe Newsletter.

NWLPC PO Box 3142 Renton, WA 98056