Are Paid Surveys Scams?

Paid online surveys are a good way to supplement one's regular income. Often times, college students or homemakers too indulge in these online surveys to earn a few extra bucks. All a person requires, to do this job, is a computer, an Internet connection and an e-mail id. A paid survey requires the person to register with the website and fill out a questionnaire or participate in an opinion poll. The questions that the person has to answer are of a very personal nature, pertaining to his likes and dislikes. These questions help the website to arrive at the tastes and opinions of the demography to which the person belongs. All this information which is collected is then given to market research company/companies, who further use it to determine the demand or change in demand of products, the potential customers as well as the revenues that certain products will generate. Thus, online paid surveys have become a major tool of primary market research for many companies.

As far as the people who work on online surveys for money are concerned, it is a good option to make easy money online, as this work can be done in the convenience of one's home. There is one problem though, it is seen that people these days have come across many online scams i.e. illegitimate, unauthentic surveys, which are nothing but a way to extract money or personal information from a person. So, how to differentiate between an authentic paid survey and a paid surveys scam? Let's find out.

Ask for Payment
Although paid surveys are a good option as far as online jobs are concerned, still in the process of earning these extra bucks, a person might come across survey companies that are nothing but a paid survey hoax. To detect such illegitimate companies, the biggest clue is that such unauthentic companies will ask you for money. They will ask you for something like, "one-time registration fees" or "administration fees". Such companies, in order to win people's confidence might post some fake testimonials from their supposed customers. When they ask for money they give reasons such as - fees is taken to separate people who are genuinely interested in paid surveys from those who are not serious about it or they may say that they need fees to maintain their website or to update their database.

Sell Personal Information
Paid online surveys scam are not just limited to these companies extracting money from you. These companies can further sell your personal information to various marketing companies. Suddenly you will find a whole lot of telemarketing companies calling you or your email flooded with junk mail or your letter box full of chain letters, suggesting you all sorts of business opportunities by way of paid surveys, which most likely will be scams.

Offer Unrealistic Income Figures
If you look at companies that offer legitimate paid surveys, they will not claim that by working for them you will earn a full-time income as it is realistically not possible. Paid surveys are meant to earn those extra few bucks and not for running homes. And if any company is claiming otherwise, most likely it is a scam.

Ill-maintained Website
Another good way to spot a scam is that the websites of such fraud companies will not be properly maintained. There will be spelling or grammar mistakes in the content or there might be broken hyperlinks. Contact information might be improper or missing altogether. Navigation through the website might be difficult and often times such websites lack any security measures.

Going through paid surveys reviews available on the Internet will also give you a fairly good idea of which all market research companies and websites you can trust. On an average, a paid survey can pay a person anywhere between $3 to $20. It is a good and easy way of making money online, provided a person is able to detect a scam and steers clear of them.