I have mystery shopped neighbourhood grocery stores, Ikea, fast-food chains, restaurants and liquor shops. I’ve been asked to pretend like I am looking around for a car- was reimbursed for everything and given a test drive got a new car to myself.

I got paid $8-$25 per shop, plus reimbursement for my purchases. There have been months where I earned over $5,000, but most months, I make an additional $400-$500 per month for mystery shopping.

What is Mystery Shopping?

For those who aren’t knowledgeable about mystery shopping, it is a job where a company pays you to present as a regular customer and provide feedback to the company on matters like how clean the shop was or how well the workers interacted with you.

In exchange for your comments, they pay you a commission, and typically they will ask you to make a purchase but reimburse you for it.

Be Careful of Mystery Shopping Scams

If you have looked into mystery shopping before, you know that there are a lot of scammers seeking to make the most of the business’s growing popularity.

A couple of rules: Never pay to join a mystery shopping business. The legitimate ones never request a payment from you.

Never pay money to a company. Mystery shopping companies that are legitimate are short of shoppers so that they never ask that you pay to see a listing of their tasks.