While the Internet has legitimately helped people make money, it has also spawned its share of dishonest people who are happy to take advantage of others in order to get money from them. The world of online surveys is no exception. Sure, there are legitimate marketing research firms that will pay you for your opinions, but you probably don't have to pay in order to find them if you're willing to take time and do some research.
If you pay for a membership in an online organization that promises to hook you up with all the best online research marketing firms, make sure you check to see if they have a money back guarantee beforehand. Any decent organization will have a guarantee and honor it. Another rule of thumb when dealing with online groups you pay to find you paid surveys is that the more glowing the testimonials, the more likely they are to be fake.
And there is this: the more disproportionate the ratio of time investment to income, the more likely it is a scam.
In other words, if you are promised hundreds of dollars, or some expensive "prize" for five minutes of your time, it's probably a scam.Here are some other signs that a particular site is a scam:
You can't find any company information such as where the headquarters are, or an "about us" page.
There's no privacy policy. Surveys do, after all, collect a lot of personal information. You're entitled to know what will happen to it.
The sign-up page only asks for an email address and a name. Since marketing researchers have to pitch surveys to the right demographic, they need more than just a name and an email address to go on.
While there are legitimate online survey firms that will pay people to take surveys, it takes effort to distinguish them from the scam sites.
Online Survey Scams