Spot Online Paid Survey Scams

October 25, 2010 by  
Filed under Paid Survey Scams

Know how to spot online paid survey scams? All over the web there are people who prey upon innocent consumers trying to earn a living at home.  This group have a sense of entitlement and are  looking to make an easy dollar cheating you out of your hard earned money through online paid survey scams and other work at home jobs.online paid survey scams

American legislators are taking the problem of paid survey scams very seriously. The federal government and numerous states are currently in the process of enacting legislation to counter paid surveys fraud inside and outside of the United States.

Does this mean that paid surveys are entirely bad? Not necessarily. They can, in fact, be very helpful at reducing  debt, paying off bills or creating a discretionary income for vacations or luxury items for your family.

However proceed with caution when choosing top paid surveys online . Here are a few  do’s and dont’s to spot online paid survey scams.

Don’t use Paid survey sites or lists that want your name and address to sign up and only provide you with a small sample of their worst  survey sites asking you to pay for an upgraded membership.
Don’t use paid survey sites that request you register  in order to participate in their free paid surveys.  Only to discover that your name, address and other information are being sold to email spamming companies.

Do provide your sign up information when joining the survey panel not when joining a website to get a list of paid survey sites.  If the website asks for your information to access to the paid survey sites list your probably going to be spammed.

Don’t use paid survey sites that give promises of pie in the sky earnings when you pay them a small fee to join later to discover that your investment has returned little or nothing in earned income.

Do check out every survey company before you join. Plan on earning on average between $2.00 to $10.00 per survey.

Don’t use paid survey sites that sell you outdated or obsolete survey site list information. Most online paid survey scam sites make it difficult if not impossible for you’re to get your money back.

paid survey scamsDo read all money back guaranties carefully and check out the contact numbers before making the commitment.

Do look out for poorly written websites with lots of typos or misspellings this is always a dead give away of online paid survey scam.

Do understand what type of survey site you are joining before signing up.  Get paid to shop and secret shoppers websites are commonly confused for paid survey websites. In fact these websites are called Incentive-ized websites and pay you a commission or discount to participate in a trail offer or purchase.

Most of these websites require you to register or enroll in an introductory offer or complete different levels of a special offer complete a survey about the product and get paid.

These sites by definition are not free paid survey sites but they do pay you to take surveys and read emails.   These websites can be useful when shopping on line for things you were going to purchase anyway.  Simply make sure you read the fine print on all offers and be aware of what’s required of you before you decide to you participate in the offer.

Following these guidelines and the adage “If it sounds to good to be true, it is”  and you can be confident that you will find good paid survey websites. Want to learn more about

Paid Survey Scams | Avoid Online Paid Survey Scams

October 2, 2010 by  
Filed under Paid Survey Scams

Paid survey scams are all over the internet.  Here are some easy ways to identify and avoid paid survey scams when visiting a website.

If a survey website claims it can make you thousands of dollars a day it’s probably a survey scam site and you should avoid this survey scam.paid surveys scams pic1

Paid survey scams will charge you to access to their website, survey list or charge an upgrade fee to access a better survey list.  Never pay to get list of online paid surveys.

Websites that provide no information about their company but request your personal information to join are typically paid survey scams.  These websites usually gather your information and sell it. These websites are called email-harvesting sites and often the websites are very simple setups with no company information or sources to contact. All they ask for is your name and email address to join.

Avoid any survey websites that require your credit card information or access to your bank account before you can participate.

The easiest way to avoid paid survey scams is to do the following:


paid survey scams pic2Check the survey sites name, or URL on the national website for the Better Business Bureau or Federal Trade Commission.

The B.B.B. keeps information on most  paid survey companies listed on Internet and grades these companies A through F primarily on the number consumer complaints received and how they resolve  the complaints with consumers.

Another way to avoid survey scams is to check out a paid surveys websites privacy policy.  To avoid prosecution most websites disclose how they will use your web visit information. If you don’t like their privacy policy or worse yet they don’t have a privacy policy, stay away.  Legitimate free paid survey companies will clearly state what they do with your information and how they plan to use it.

Do a search under paid survey scams, include the name of the survey company or website you are checking out.  If there is any dirt out there or the company has not performed ethically you find out quickly.  Be aware, there are some survey scams sites that try to lure you to their site by posing as a scam victim.

Check out different forums and message boards that cater to paid surveys an work at home jobs online. These forums and message boards offer advice on how to avoid surveys scams and where to find paid surveys and paid survey website lists. Talk to other people who are currently using paid surveys online.paid survey scams pic3

Find out where they got their paid survey lists and what survey companies they would recommend.

Look for surveys that don’t appear to be legitimate. Coke vs. Pepsi, Legalize marijuana, Should we pull out of Iraq, etc.

These types of surveys are marketing gimmicks to emotionally involve you in a purchase after you complete the survey. They are not survey scams but cant be classified as a true paid survey.

You should know that market research companies who conduct paid surveys or mystery shopping for the most part don’t advertise directly to the consumer when recruiting survey panel members.

Most market research companies hire affiliate companies to pre-screen websites and determine what legitimate websites can promote their survey site to consumers.