The Blog of Jasmine Sadler » Work

Secret Shopping and Work at Home Scams

Jasmine — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:51:11 +0000

I had a random thought this morning about one of the girls I tried out for the Colts’ Cheerleaders with. Lots of the girls were unemployed, students, or house wives. One girl was a Secret Shopper. In my plan to be a stay at home wife and mom, I thought I’d do a little premature research.

I googled “Secret Shopper” and popped up a bunch of sites asking me to do it, and 1 that stood out with “Secret-Shopping Scam” by MSNBC. That article talks about one secret shopper’s experience that led to a scam. Basically, 1. The Company sends him a check for $2,500. 2. He cashes the check at his bank. 3. He keeps $250 and sends back $2,250 to secret shop and evaluate the local MoneyGram. 4. After the check has been sent to The Company, the check to your bank account bounces. 5. The Company has your money and you must repay your bank from your own pockets! Sucks right?!

After seeing that stuff, there was a link on the page talking about Working From Home using your computer. I went to their page where there is a great story by a beautiful woman holding a baby with a caption about her losing her job (with which of us can relate). There is a big banner of their “accreditations” about being seen on NBC, Reader’s Digest, Good Morning America, and The New York Times. Their site connects to their main web page with even more references. Of course, being a good blogger, I wanted to do a little research so you guys don’t have to I found these 2 failed searches on The New York Times and MSNBC before I got to a very good news report on the work at home scam. The embedded video shows the same “mom” in a Buffalo news report. There still is nothing that tells the actual detail of the scam, but that was enough for me.

I have actually been scammed before with Primerica, an insurance company. Don’t feel bad or embarrassed if you’ve been hustled. I ended up getting all of my money back, but it wasn’t without hassle. I thought because I went to high school with the guy that invited me, and it is approved by the Better Business Bureau, I was golden. It was indeed a pyramid scheme from which I would get little to no profit.

In conclusion, there’s no job bandwagon that you can just jump onto. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. I think the only companies that you can really guarantee won’t scam you are ones that you start on you own in a highly desired field!

Sadface

Jasmine — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:32:08 +0000

I’ve been going on this like 7-day depression<–>euphoric cycle. It has been awful. I realized that Coke and other caffeinated drinks taste good, but make me crash like crazy. It puts me in like a time warp where I am just dazed for a good 5 minute stretch. That also happens during my 4 hour drives home, which is definitely not a good thing. Also, I stopped taking my allergy pills because they make my patience quite thin thus making me quite mean to other people.

All that aside, I just haven’t been feeling the best. My boyfriend and I keep going through crazy good<–>bad cycles and it would be great if we just went back to the constant good we had. Being at work for 9 hours gets me a little bummed at different times. There has also been some drama there (on more than one occasion) where people just don’t have the ability to have personal conversations with others. If I’m doing something out of the ordinary, tell me, not others. I’ve been feeling the need for a good cry, but just haven’t given myself the opportunity. The up-swing of things happened when I just talked to my girls on the phone or hung out with them. They make me laugh and they are very motivational to themselves and with me.

Something has got to change. I plan to start reading a lot more! I have to read one book for work. My friend has referred The Five Love Languages. I also plan to read my bible or have a good old-fashioned on the knee prayer time. I think I might actually unplug my TV so I can just focus and think about me. I’ll give updates, wish me luck!

I’m Back

Jasmine — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:27:29 +0000

So, I know it’s been a while, but I’m back in action!! (I’m surprised I still know my password, lol)

I really got the inspiration to come back by my coworker, Eric, wanting to learn more about me with his never-ending questions; and my line sister Monique. Her blog is really good and since I don’t get to talk to her as often as I would like, I feel that I get a sneak peak into her life

Currently, I’m working in Indianapolis, IN with a military defense company being a Logistics Specialist. It’s really cool to know that what I do helps others in the military and thus is helping our country. We have the typical ‘cubefarm’ setting, but it leads to interesting convo, or some good drama-filled eavesdropping!!

I have a great boyfriend, Corbin. He’s in graduate school back at home. It’s been working pretty well with the relatively close distance. He came down this past weekend and we did the Indy Canal Walk and the Indy 500 Bump Day. Saturday was perfect weather for the canal walk with him and my 14 week old/3 month old puppy, Cooli O. Sunday was a REALLY hot and humid 88 degrees. We stayed for a while and would run in and out of our air-conditioned pavillion.

My family is really good back at home. My brother is doing really great work as a photographer. My parents are usually doing their retired thing of activities with AKA’s or the Mason’s. I love going home to visit, but I’m glad I’m grown and out of the house doing things on my own.

I’m going to the Maxwell/Jill Scott concert tonight, eek! But I don’t really know either of them all that well, but I’m sure it’ll be a good time. In another post, I’ll have to update on the past year and my natural hair!!

Cooli and I

I’m done, already

Jasmine — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:13:13 +0000

So why does my whole department think that when I say I have ‘two weeks left’ they think it means I have two working weeks left. Come on people no one ever does stuff their last week. If I weren’t an intern I probably would have had oodles and oodles of vacation time to take. And you know when people take it? The last week of work. I still have to find the most concise and direct way to say that I’m going on the Price is Right next week and I’m gonna win tons-o-money or even ‘a neeeeww carrrr’. I guess I don’t really need a new car though. That’s the thing, why do places always give you free upgrades and whatnot, exactly when you don’t need them? For example, when the phone company gives you a free upgrade every two years. About one year into it, I decided to upgrade my phone to the beta version (with bluetooth!) . Then, the two year mark rolls around and my daddy being fast decides to get the ‘free upgrade’ (which in itself is an oxymoron; the free one is always suckier than the one you have). So, he gets that and about 2 months later my beta version is broken (internally, so not my fault) and I wanna get rid of it to get a new fancy phone with a keyboard. But noooooo sucky phone has replaced offsetting like half the price of the upgrade. Now I’m stuck with a refurbished beta Anyway, bottom line, I’m not supposed to do work next week so stop giving me new projects as this week comes to a close! (kind of too long of a sentence to put an exclamation, where would the emphasis go? it’s kinda hard to build up the volume and intensity when it’s a full sentence)

the work race

Jasmine — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:36:27 +0000

So, I thought this one would be better, well at least different, but it’s really all the same. I have started work and it begins just like all the other internships. Me asking myself ‘self, can I really do this for 3 whole months?’ It seems like so long, but from past experience, it’s over before I realize it. The thing that always gets me through is meeting people that look like me (under 25 and of color). I’m definitely not racist, but it’s just something about the bond that we have with each other that makes the experience so much better. Pardon me as I bring in my (most expensive at the university) engineering mind. I will mix that with an American Culture class that I had. One segment was on discrimination. It talked about how it is not always the whites discriminating, but the minorities sticking together and not wanting to mix with the whites. Being one of the few minorities in the class, I could definitely relate. We never discussed the ‘real’, ‘educational’, ‘psycological’ reason why that happened, but just talked about the connection from history, childhood, and present experiences.

I’m still wondering why there is no one that looks like me, that works with me. Is it really the lack of drive or tenacity, or is it the lack of opportunity. Whatever the reason, please pop up or come in with the next wave of interns next week!

The first of 90

Jasmine — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:32:52 +0000

I got to San Diego yesterday morning around 10am. After waiting like an hour in 90 degree weather for the shuttle, I finally got to my hotel. They couldn’t find my name. Put me up in this one place. Then found ‘my name’ spelled wrong and moved all of my stuff. There was one casualty to the move. My bright pink nail polish broke and spilled all over my nice white shoes It made me really sad because I had to force pairs of shoes into my suitcase so I could have either left those and had more room or just brought some different shoes! but I digress.

Today was pretty cool. Woke up at 5:30 this morning, but I slept A LOT all day yesterday and my body is still on Eastern time. So it was kinda 8:30am. Caught the shuttle to work. That was cool, met Ed or Ted? of the front desk.

Had hours and hours of orientation. I’m so glad that I wasn’t sleepy today. There, I met my new buddy (NB). Went to lunch in the caf. More training, got my badge, then had a tour.

Came home from work, went to the grocery store with NB. Got some breakfast food, cereal, ramen, you know all the basic food groups.

Then, we met with NB’s friend. He was really cool. Went to In ‘n Out Burger for the first time ever. It was really good and I don’t even like fast food too much.

Now back in the room chillin. About to get ready for bed soon. Catching up with friends over the phone.