This is totally and completely a scam. It is a very common one going around right now. DO NOT DEPOSIT THE CHECK.

Here is how it works: You deposit the check and, by law, the bank makes the funds available after a few days. You then use the funds to purchase the gift cards, which you send to the scammer. Once you have done that, the scammer has perfectly good gift cards and, thereafter, the check is returned to the bank as fraudulent. You are out whatever you spent on gift cards plus whatever your bank charges you for depositing bad checks, overdrafts, etc.

Our ICA's prohibit us from sharing that sort of information... You'll just need to check the job boards for the companies for which you've signed up.

Josiah -

You are at an age where you can make some pretty easy money for alcohol and tobacco compliance shops. They are super-easy and pay well. And, there are a lot of them - if you know where to look......

It's the end of June. Schedulers are desperately trying to unload their last few shops by one of their biggest deadlines of the year (6/30). If the schedulers have been successful, you might not see much. July shops should start showing up soon.... If iSS does not have anything, there is a TON of work available with other companies - some at two, three, four, ten times the initial payment offer.

If you need more work, branch out and try other MSC's... For long-time shoppers, this coming week is generally the most profitable of the year.

Darshi -

I will not recommend any non-iSS companies on the iSS platform as the MSC's that advertise here pay for the forum. However, if you are looking for more work, I suggest Googling "MysteryShopForum." There is a tremendous amount of (free!) information to be found there.

Complete more shops successfully. Every time you do, you will get "points" which add to your reputation. When you get enough "points" your reputation will go up levels and allow you to self-assign more shops.

If you want to have more assigned, you can always email the schedulers and ask them. They can bypass your self-assign limit.

Every company is different.pay can be anywhere from two weeks to four months. The IVA’s you signed should tell you.

Kevin -

There are several reasons that some folks earn more weekly points than others - despite shopping in the same area...

* Some folks will work a larger area. For instance, I live in Seattle, but, in the last year, have completed shops in Oregon, California, South Dakota, Missouri, Illinois, Montana and Kansas.

* Some folks are assigned shops as a matter of routine each month as a part of professional relationships with schedulers.

Felisha -

I won't name companies on this forum that are not on iSS - this is a matter of respect for those companies that use the iSS platform (and therefore support it). However, if you go to the MysteryShopForum, you'll find a list of over 200 companies - some very large and some very small.