One of the opportunities for making money online is the “job” of being able to make money by filling out surveys. There is a flood of ads for this type of online work and some of them are legitimate.
Unfortunately, there are also many that are not, and they only pay a tiny amount – if they pay at all. By looking carefully, you can discover that there are 13 ways to detect paid online survey scams.
You can be certain a survey site is a scam if:
1. You Have to Pay to Get Access
A real survey site is willing to pay you to take the surveys and not the other way around. If you have to pay, then either it is a scam, or you are going to pay for information about taking surveys.
The site may want to give you a list of survey websites and you are going to pay for the eBook. When a survey site asks you to pay for something, you can be sure that they are planning on making money off of you and it is doubtful that you will ever see a dime from that site.
2. There is a Registration Asking for Minimal Information about You
A real survey site needs to be able to match particular people to specialized paid surveys. In order for them to do this, they need to know a lot of information about you and your buying habits.
If the site is not asking for a lot of information, but only wants your name and email address, or maybe a little more, then most likely they want to simply send you advertising emails in the future.
3. Legal Forms Are Not Present
Whenever you provide personal information online to a legitimate site, you will usually find various legal documents on the site. These may include such documents as a “Terms & Conditions”, a “Privacy Policy”, and possibly a “Disclaimers” link.
A legal website that is not a scam will make these documents available because they do not want to be legally liable and so they make the legal issues clear. A scam site just does not care about legal issues.
4. The Earnings Claims Will Be Unrealistic
One of the main attractions to get paid to take surveys is the potential to earn some money. Scam sites know this and so they will promise a lot of money – an unrealistic amount. When you see large numbers promised in relation to surveys, you can be sure that it is a scam.
While survey companies do pay money, and some of them may pay rather well for a few minutes of time for a couple of surveys, you are not apt to be getting a lot of money from filling out surveys overall.
5. You Are Asked for Sensitive Information
Spammers love to get hold of your personal financial information. This includes bank account numbers, credit card numbers, passwords and more.
If you see a form requesting your personal financial information, you can be sure it is a scam. When you see it, leave the site immediately.
A website of this sort has no need for you to enter any personal financial information, but it will need to ask for a PayPal address or that of a similar type account so you can get paid.
6. Do Not Find Real Contact Information
When you need to contact someone, a real paid survey site will have contact information out where it is easy to find. This may include a physical address, a phone number and email address. They want people to communicate with them, so it can easily be found.
A scam site, however, does not want any contact – they just want your information and email address, but usually there will not be any contact information anywhere.
7. Promises Lots of Money for Little Work
Paid survey sites may offer a number of surveys that you can take, but most likely there aren’t going to be enough to get rich from.
In fact, it will not be enough to live on, unless your requirements are really low. It also is not apt to be steady work, with some weeks having more surveys than others. Most likely, it will provide a small part-time income that will put some extra cash in your pocket.
8. You Are Not Promised Protection on Your Information
When websites are legal and are going to request some personal information, they will usually include some statement stating that they do not sell or give away your personal information to other companies.
This is the kind of statement you want to look for. If it is not there, you can be sure that it is a scam. Non-legitimate companies do not care about protecting your information. In fact, they may be collecting it just so they can sell it and make a profit.
Always be careful about what kind of information you are giving to a website and never provide a credit card number or bank account information.
9. You Are Asked to Buy Something
A real survey company wants to get your opinion about certain products. In order to get it, they provide you with surveys that are geared to your purchasing habits.
One way that they will get your opinion about a specific product would be to send you a free sample in the mail, which you will not pay for.
If they ask you to buy something to test or sample, then you can be rather sure that the company is a scam looking to make money off of you.
10. There Isn’t Any FAQs Page
This goes back to the idea that a scam company will be in too much of a hurry to create a phony website to do it right. Before you sign up for any survey site, be sure that you read as much information about how it works as you can. This will usually be in a FAQs page, or a How it Works page.
If you do not find some kind of link to a page that will tell you the details of filling out surveys for their company, you can be sure it is a scam offer.
11. There Isn’t Any Company Information
Real business web pages will provide you some information about their company. They do this because they know that people want to be able to learn about a company to find out if they should trust it or not. They also want to build their brand so that you will be loyal to them – and not their competitors.
It’s part of being transparent. If a survey site has no company information it is because they do not intend to be transparent because there really is not a company behind it – it’s just a scammer.
12. Daily High Paying Surveys Are an Exception
One reason that a survey company cannot promise a good salary is because there is no guarantee that you will match the need for a specific type of survey.
You simply may not match the demographics needed for that week’s survey. Paid surveys are based on your particular buying habits and income levels. While some surveys do pay well, most of them do not.
13. Read Reviews of the Company
Reviews of online companies can be easily found and read. If a company has been online for any amount of time, there may be several reviews of it already available. Just type in the company’s name in the search engine search box and read the results. If most of the reviews are positive, you have most likely found a good company.
If a scam survey company is brand new, however, you will need to look for the other things mentioned above. Older scam sites are apt to disappear after a little while to be replaced with new ones – because bad reviews will be showing up rather quickly.