Confero Mystery Shopper Blog

Confero, Inc. has been alerted of a new scam targeting unsuspecting consumers.  The scam artists have used Confero, Inc.’s reputable name in an attempt to trick consumers into giving their personal information in exchange for high paying “mystery shops.”  This is a scam.

Below you will see a complete copy of an email received by a consumer from a scammer.  These scammers do a very good job of making these advertisements seem real.  They have even used the identity of Confero’s President and CEO, Elaine Buxton.  Elaine did not send this email and her email address is not e.buxton@aol.com.

Please take a few minutes to read over this scam email so you will be aware if you receive one of these emails.  Also, visit our Consumer Alerts section for more information on these and other types of scams that often target the mystery shopping industry.

Please be aware there are lots of reputable mystery shopping companies with lots of legitimate mystery shopping opportunities for consumers interested in becoming a mystery shopper.  For information on how to get started as a mystery shopper or to find legitimate mystery shopping opportunities, visit The Mystery Shopping Providers Association’s (MSPA) website or the Become a Mystery Shopper page on Confero’s website. 

Email Scam:

Confero is a leading provider of customer experience research services to leading national brands, multi-unit and independent growth companies. Customized solutions measure, monitor and report on front line performance and customer satisfaction so clients get the business intelligence needed to grow sales, build brand loyalty and increase bottom line results. Services include onsite mystery shopping, competitive studies, recorded telephone mystery shops, voice of the customer (IVR) surveys, web surveys, compliance audits and on the spot rewards.

A MysteryShopper should remain anonymous. You should act as a regular customer and be careful not to do anything that would reveal you as a shopper. An inexperienced shopper could tip off the staff to his/her identity by asking for the manager's name for no clear or appropriate reason. If you are going to be bringing someone with you on the shop, make sure you educate them about the process as well. Beware that even whispers can be
overheard by employees. If anyone notices you are a shopper, you can bet that word will quickly spread around the establishment and you will get
some of the best customer service in town.
 

Here at Confero, we get lots of questions from mystery shoppers asking how they can improve their shop ratings.  One easy way to improve your shop rating is to make sure you are providing a clean, concise mystery shop report every time.  Here is a list of the Top Six Mistakes to Avoid When Completing a Mystery Shop Report:

1. Copying and pasting shop information.   Each mystery shop is unique, so each mystery shop report should be unique to each individual shop.  Our clients do not accept reports with copied or “canned”comments, as they expect each unique mystery shop/audit visit’s conversation to be reported individually. That’s what they are paying for. Copied or canned comments imply that the mystery shopper did not make the required observations or give them full attention.  For more details about this, see Cathy Stucker’s blog about all the “Dangers of Copy and Paste.”

Our mystery shoppers may have noticed that over the past year, Confero has seen a big increase in clients requesting audits of their location.  Audits are usually used by large companies or corporations with multiple locations, often nationwide. Audits provide a simple way for companies to manage the image they are presenting to customers in all their locations. 

Audits usually require auditors to visit the assigned location and do any of the following items:

1. Take an inventory of particular products.  Companies want to ensure that their shelves are properly stocked at all times.  And sometimes, they are auditing their competitors, so they want to be able to compare what their competitors have in stock.  In a recent program, one of our clients had auditors visit grocery stores to take inventory particular brands of products.  They wanted to know how much shelf space was designated for their product, as well as their competitors.

Unfortunately, scam artists have targeted unsuspecting consumers under the disguise of mystery shopping companies for several years now.  Recently, there have been a couple of news stories involving a few of these scams.  Last year, the wire transfer company, MoneyGram had to pay $18 million to settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission because it was found that “MoneyGram agents helped fraudulent telemarketers and other con artists who tricked U.S. consumers into wiring more than $84 million within the United States and to Canada.”  Also, in early April of this year, a man was sentenced to six years in prison for running a $6 million job scam. 

Yesterday, Confero was alerted about several job postings on several job sites including pennlive.com, silive.com and masslive.com.  Confero has not posted any of these job postings.  The postings advertise positions as Customer Service Representatives, Administrative positions, and Call Center employees.  All the ads list the person to contact as Dave Miller.  Confero does not have any employees by this name.

Confero, Inc. does not advertise for full-time positions anywhere other than in Cary, North Carolina.  All legitimate job openings for Confero are announced on our company website on the Careers page.