Online paid surveys are rewarding businesses for survey companies. Consumer goods manufacturers and branding companies are always interested to hear what you the consumer and survey taker have to say about their products. It does not matter what market segment or product line. Consumer opinions and emerging market trends are equally important. This is where online paid surveys companies fill the gap by finding such market research information for the companies. And this is also why online survey takers are valuable to them. Unfortunately, unscrupulous online marketers seeing how lucrative the business is quickly set up scam sites to fleece genuine income opportunity seekers.

But how do you know if an online paid survey site is a scam? After all, there are probably more legitimate online survey sites than there are phony sites. We will look at some of the tell-tale signs. When you see all of them in a particular market research company, it is time to flee! Before we do that, do not confuse online survey sites from those sites that offer directories of online paid surveys. These are honest sites that have done the footwork of researching into the market research or online survey sites before compiling an easy-to-refer informative directory. Serious survey takers use them even though there is a one-time fee.

Scam Scent 1 – Pay to Join

Market research companies require you to pay them in order to be offered free internet paid surveys. What they do is to charge you for registering with them. Do not fall for this trick. They earn direct commissions from the product companies that need the survey data. Charging you a fee is ridiculous. However, paying for online paid surveys directories is perfectly fine since it can save you lots of time.

Scam Scent 2 – Empty Shell Companies

These are empty shells ie look good on the outside but empty on the inside. These scam online survey sites run as membership sites and always have tricks up their sleeves. The common bombshell here is that they would charge you a fee to join and you will never hear from them again. When you try to contact them, majority is unreachable while several would tell you that you have to wait longer for online paid surveys to be available. Obviously, it is an eternal wait.

Scam Scent 3 – Batch Surveys

Another trick some free internet paid surveys companies do is to stage “batch robberies”. What happens is they would conduct batch surveys in the tune of hundreds of surveys. The payment term would state that you have to fulfill a minimum quota first before you are eligible for payment or you would be paid once you hit a minimum survey value or credit. They may also agree to pay at month end. So when the time comes for payment, guess what? They fold up and go. Basically, these are Tier 2 online survey sites which feed the main online survey companies with survey results. Now, they unlike the main survey firms, have no direct contact with the survey requestors ie the client product companies.

Scam Scent 4 – Gifts Only Concept

Most online paid surveys or market research companies pay cash though the payment mode could be a mix of non-cash rewards. Such rewards could be free product samples, gifts like free pens, discount vouchers, shopping vouchers, movie tickets, etc. Be extra careful when you realize the online survey company is only giving you non-cash items for your participation. I am sure this is not what you really want as a survey taker.

Learn how many others are finding rewarding free internet paid surveys from online paid survey directories at my blog.