Legitimate or Scam? Online Surveys

If you’re interested in becoming a paid panelist (survey taker), there are a few things you should know before you end up with an inbox full of spam. Register, Earn, Redeem! Pretty simple and straight forward right? Not necessarily so, there are several ways that sites use to mislead you without making any direct promises. It’s easier to find information if you know what you’re looking for and where you should look. From misleading descriptions to fine print notices here’s how to spot a less-than-legitimate paid survey site or any other offer for that matter.

Let’s cover the usual three easy steps to make money through a site. Register, Earn, Redeem. There are a few things that make this process not nearly as simple as it seems. When you register, you are agreeing to the site’s Terms of Service. These are full of important information as these are the site’s fine print. As goes with anything in life, failure to read the fine print can leave you feeling caught off guard, ripped off and scammed. While the TOS are usually pretty lengthy and wordy, it’s important to read them carefully because they are your first and most defining clues about the site’s legitimacy.
So what’s in that fine print anyway? Well, one of the most frustrating and dishonest terms in the fine print is the site’s ability to change the rules at any point for any reason. If this is in the TOS, consider it a big red flag. Another wonderful thing that you agree to in some of the “Terms of Service” is to receive emails. Basically this is spam and you’ll usually get a couple of them daily directly from that website. In addition, some of them also have in their TOS that you agree to receive emails from their affiliates and partner sites. This adds another few spam emails per day to your inbox.

Another less obvious term you may find in the TOS is the statement that the member uses the site at the member’s own risk. Similar terms might be “as-is.” You may be able to fix a vehicle with this sort of non-guarantee but you can’t do much about a website scamming you out of precious time. On the subject of time, some of these sites also have requirements that meet minimum participation requirements within a limited time frame. If this is the case, avoid this site. Legitimate companies do not require that you complete a certain amount of surveys, offers or anything else. In fact, they state that there are certain demographics that each survey is looking for and that you may not qualify for any given survey.
Another loop hole that these sites use is the right to refuse, change or discontinue rewards earned.

If a website relies on merchants, affiliates or advertisers to report your participation and completion of an offer, consider a loop hole for their benefit. Once you have completed an “offer” the merchant has already benefited from you and have no further motivation to report your participation. Other terms to look for are statements saying that the site is not obligated to credit members unless they receive confirmation of your completion. A legitimate site will have contact information for you to resolve any issues that may arise.
Similarly, the TOS may state that it is at their sole discretion to credit points and it is solely the responsibility of the merchant to report a members participation, conveniently (for the site not the member) it is also at the site’s sole discretion to reverse points awarded if their later reports show that they received less than the original report showed. So, in a nutshell, they don’t have to give you the points but they reserve the right to reverse any points awarded.

If you do find a site you feel comfortable signing up with, pay attention to the first “survey” you get or are prompted to complete. If this survey contains yes/no answers and is filled with products and services asking which ones you are interested in, don’t bother wasting any more of your time on it. That is considered their survey, and your big prize? An inbox full of spam and offers from every single product and service you showed any interest in. Legitimate companies do not have these types of surveys. A survey through a legitimate company will be on one specific brand, product or service.

The bottom line is the usual rule of thumb that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Secondly, never pay money to make money online. Legitimate companies don’t charge you to work for them. Consider this…how many interviews have you been on that required you to pay the interviewer to release the job description details?

Finding Paid Surveys

With so many paid survey “opportunities” on the Internet, the trick becomes distinguishing the legitimate opportunities from “opportunities” that are really just scams. The first step is to look for recommendations on websites that rate these sites, my favorite is 10xmore.com. Also read through forums and blogs about surveys and look at the comments left at the end of articles about paid surveys. You can also Google different terms to come up with paid surveys. There are many different combinations of terms that sites use. Some you can try are “paid surveys,” “focus groups,” “market research,” “research groups,” “market survey,” “Research panelist,” etc. Once you are signed up for one or more survey sites, take note of the surveys they send you. At the top of many surveys will be a research or marketing company. Search for that website on the Internet and visit their site to see if they are accepting panelists.

When you do come across a site that you think may be legitimate, double check it against sites that list known scams, the best one I've found so far is SurveyPolice.com, it’s one more step but could save you a lot of time in the long run. The next best way to determine if an offer or opportunity is legitimate or if it’s a scam is to read the fine print, there are many indicators of a scam in the Terms of Service (TOS) and User Agreement documents. Things to keep an eye out for are red flags such as the site’s ability to change the rules at any point for any reason, agreeing to receive email and offers from affiliates, the term “as-is,” and minimum participation or “offer” requirements. These are indications that the site may not be legitimate. Stay away from ads on the Internet, television or newspaper. Legitimate companies do not need to advertise, word of mouth produces plenty of panelists for these companies. Also, never pay for any lists or programs. Legitimate companies do not charge you, they pay you.

While you are searching for paid surveys, you are likely to find other paid opportunities online as well. If you are interested in finding other paid opportunities online, try typing “paid to” in your search engine and see what comes up. You’re likely to find things like voting, shopping, surveys, games, jury duty and more. Whatever opportunities you come across, the same rules apply for these programs and sites as do for surveys. Check the fine print, read the Terms of Service and User Agreements and do not ever pay for anything.

The Internet Piggy

I am always looking for new ways to make an extra buck and have found too many really cool things to do on the Internet lately to keep them to myself. You'll find reviews of the sites I have visited and found to be worth some time and those that seem to be worth the time. I don't write reviews on scams and sites that I haven't found to be worth the time because I've obviously already wasted enough time on them. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. If there's something you want to see here, let me know :)