Paid Survey

Are you considering earning money from paid surveys? Here's our opinion on how not to be caught in a scam.

An investigation into making cash from taking surveys

Paid surveys have been around for many years with selected consumers being paid by marketing firms that conduct the research. The firms pay consumers to take part in the surveys, collect data and be part of focus groups. Some firms conduct legitimate paid marketing research and surveys online.

Paid surveys have been made into a scam by the usual bunch of people who want to make quick money at the expense of others. Unfortunately this tarnishes the survey industry and it should be pointed out that there are many legitimate businesses dealing with marketing research and creating opportunities for participants to make money in a viable way. The middleman sites make the companies that carry out legitimate business be viewed negatively.

There are ways to make a distinction between legitimate companies and those who operate scam paid surveys. The time to do this is on registration when the bogus companies will probably ask you for a payment in order to get you the highest paid jobs. The problem is that there are a lot more phoney companies than genuine ones. Before being caught up with one of these scam operators, just consider that if there were a steady supply of surveys paying upwards of $100 an hour, why aren't these companies doing the surveys themselves? The reality is that there aren't any of these highly-paid jobs.

Genuine survey companies have free memberships and also send the participants copies of the surveys. In the beginning the process may appear slow and the surveys may not be very frequent but with time, the number of survey invitations will increase. The more the participant answers the more frequent the surveys are sent to them.

Another element to the scam is where the middle-man has supposedly compiled lists of companies requiring highly-paid market surveys to be carried out. The idea is that you have to buy each list but, on examination, it will turn out that each list is substantially, if not exactly, identical. It is also a common deception for a scammer to have a multiple of guises so that when you finally give up with them and try another organisation, you just walk straight back into their trap.

Finally, there are scammers who produce lists of legitimate forthcoming surveys but who inflate the amount of money that you can expect to earn from completing the survey. Obviously, in the meantime, you will have paid to receive this list and that is the last you will hear from them.

A realistic expectation of earnings is £25 to £75 a week depending upon how much time you are prepared to put in. Obviously this is not enough to justify leaving work (one of the many claims that scammers make) but it is a handy supplement to your home-based business. Just keep your opinions clear and honest and you will receive a regular stream of survey invitations.

Not every paid survey is a scam.