Mystery Shopping
Question
I am looking for a way to earn some extra money. One of the options I found is mystery shopping. Basically, you enter a store, engage with a salesperson, and pretend you are interested in the merchandise, but in the end, you don’t buy it (or in some cases you do). You subsequently write a report about your interaction that is used by the employer to evaluate that salesperson. It sounds like an easy way to make money, but it seems to conflict with some issues I have learned about Halacha. What do you think?
Answers
Under normal circumstances it is forbidden to go into a store and pretend to be interested in buying something when you really have no intention of doing so. However, when you are doing so at the behest of the owners in order to improve their service, it is permitted to do so.
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