ASIC warns the public to be wary of a scam where cold callers are claiming to be undertaking a 'shadow shop' on behalf of ASIC. A shadow shop is where real consumers are recruited to purchase services such as financial advice to help assess the standards in the market.   

These scammers claim to be looking for shadow shoppers as part of an ASIC compliance and monitoring campaign. The scam maintains that it will pay you for your time and may encourage you to meet in person or attend a presentation after which you will receive a questionnaire to complete.

The scammers promote their services at the following website, www.theshadowshopper.com that makes false representations that their work is associated with ASIC.

ASIC has no involvement with this website or its operators, and is undertaking inquiries into the activities of the operators.

ASIC urges anyone who receives contact in these circumstances or is referred to this website to not respond.

From time to time ASIC carries out genuine consumer research including shadow shops, however we only work with accredited market research companies. If you are contacted by a company representing that they are undertaking research for ASIC you can call ASIC's Infoline on 1300 300 630 to check.

This scam is not connected or associated with legitimate market research firm Shadow Shopper at http://www.shadowshopper.com.au/ and ASIC thanks them for bringing this matter to its attention.

Report
You can report scams via the report a scam page on SCAMwatch or by contacting ASIC via our website, http://www.asic.gov.au or on 1300 300 630.

More information
The Australian Government website http://www.australia.gov.au is a safe portal for finding government services.