Survey Resources

Avoiding Survey Scams

With literally hundreds of survey websites now on the net there are inevitably going to be scams. Some are pretty obvious with ads along the lines of, “Sign up and make £150 a day” or “I made £9,754.73 last month doing surveys”. The most important thing to say about scams is don’t pay anything! Market research companies need information from you so there is no reason why you should pay them a penny. The vast majority are free and all the sites reviewed on this website are free and legitimate.

If you wish to look further afield then here are some things to look out for:

No profile info

Survey companies need detailed profile information about you so target you with specific surveys and assess the relevance of your responses. If you come across a site that looks oversimplified and just asks you for a name and email address, something is probably wrong. Usually these sites will ask you for money somewhere down the line.

Lack of company information

While the market research company needs accurate and detailed info on you, similarly you should have some background on them. An established and legitimate company should give details on their website about their location, history and objectives. This will usually be in the “About” page or on the homepage introduction.

No Privacy Policy

In joining a survey site you have to give private information about yourself. A privacy policy is a statement on how the company will safeguard your info. Most have their own webpage which can be found in the sitemap. Any website missing a privacy policy page should be avoided.

Ridiculous Promises

A quality survey site does not need to make ridiculous promises about rewards to attract new panelists. Websites claiming you make big sums taking online surveys are most likely to be fraudulent. The majority will be looking to pay you a reasonable amount for the time and effort involved. While you can certainly get some extra income, don’t believe anyone who tells you you can get rich doing paid online surveys. Big enticements and talk of easy money are likely to mean a scam.

Finally, make sure you thoroughly check out any suspect company and website before registering. Once you have clicked on the “submit” button your information is theirs and you have little or no control over it. If you do realise you have made a mistake, change the registered email address to save your regular email getting spammed.

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