Beware of Vindale Research Scam Paid Survey Site
Vindale Research, with the very sneaky and admittedly enticing slogan, "the finest minds", advertises the following opportunities to make money online. "Be heard. Share your opinion. Review Products and take simple online surveys. Make a difference by giving your opinion. Earn great rewards. Keep the products you review."
You are probably thinking how this sounds great. I know I was. As a purveyor of legitimate GPT, get paid to sites and ways to make money online through paid survey sites and product testing for market research companies. I was excited when I first signed up as a member of Vindale's panel of so-called paid survey takers and product testers. The website, the promises they make- it all looks real. I consider myself a first hand expert in paid survey market research opportunities and I usually can spot a scam instantly.
But I must admit whoever is working on the marketing and/or copywriting end of Vindale Research scam GPT Company is really quite fantastic at his or her job, which is indirectly a sales position. This person has found a way to very carefully sucker people into signing up for this scam paid survey site by tailoring to even the most skeptical person's appeals and requirements for Vindale and related paid survey sites.
Don't let Vindale Research fool you. Because they very easily can. Vindale Research is very misleading in their correspondences.
Essentially, Vindale Research is no different than one of those typical GPT scam sites (there are hundreds of them out there) with tacky, catchy names like Treasure Trooper or Fusion Cash, only they've created a business name to make them sound more like a legitimate market research company. The content on their website seems to very strongly imply that when you sign up for Vindale Research (free) you suddenly have this miraculous opportunity to make some side income and earn great free products on your own time at your own pace.
As they proclaim, you get to choose the products you evaluate and paid surveys you take. They use that keyword evaluate to make it sound like you are really doing something useful for a company that is affiliated with Vindale's scam scheme.
But really, here is exactly what you can expect from Vindale Research after signing up, I'm going to lay it out for you and I know first hand because I got suckered and signed up at first too.
Alright, well are you familiar with those annoying yet enticing internet banners or popups that randomly obstruct your view of the page you are looking at in your browser to announce that if you take a very quick one question survey (for example: Coke or Pepsi-which do you prefer?) you get voila some sort of ipod mp3 player or maybe even an Xbox?
Surely you've seen them and if you are one who is interested in the world of online paid surveys you might have even tried to click on it and give it a shot. Well, if you have ever tried this, you know that the original promise for these great electronic prizes entailed a giant catch they didn't warn you about. And that was that after answering your one question they force you to go through pages and pages of yes or no questions (that you cannot leave blank) which are designed to get you to sign up for various affiliated services, memberships, or solicitations to your inbox.
You have likely found that even if you tried to go through this lengthy yes or no surprise survey, just to see what it was all about, you either gave up after the 4th page or even more annoying, you discovered the ultimate objective of whoever was hosting the promotion which comes in the form of offers.
Well Vindale Research pretty much works identical to that scenario I just illustrated though the offers part may actually at times precede the lengthy 5 pages worth of yes or no questions. The offers page though is where you really have to be careful because it also is designed to really make a sucker not to mention a pauper out of you. It's a very tempting game to play but it can literally send you into bankruptcy.
Explanation? Well, with these offers, which as Vindale Research says, you do get to pick and choose the ones you complete, they usually will have a given dollar amount attached to them. This means if you fulfill all the contingencies of the offer and it is confirmed by Vindale Research and the affiliate company, you will get that sum of money. Sounds great right?
Of course it would be fantastic if it were that easy. Unfortunately the majority of these offers rope you into providing all your contact details in addition to putting a credit card down even for programs whose offers consist of a thirty day free trial. This is so of course you will hopefully forget to cancel at the end of thirty days and they can automatically bill you.
And yes, you probably do really get paid the promised amount for following through with the offers but you end up spending a ton of money on things you would never ever even want in the first place and instead of coming out making a profit you simply use the earned money to try and compensate for the money you lost investing in this sneaky Vindale Research GPT scam.
Whatever you do, don't let yourself fall for Vindale Research's professional website appearance, their fame and fortune style promises and their smooth writing style. Even if you, just for curiosity sake, find yourself checking out the Vindale Research scam website, don't let yourself be tricked into giving it a try. I could pretty much guarantee for 95% certainty that you will be disappointed.
Vindale Research is an example of a paid survey site or market research company that sounds too good to be true because it is too good to be true.
Published by Lori Voth
Emerson College graduate, Lori Voth, is a freelance writer and artist with a background in Marketing, Public Relations, Event Planning and Promotions. She has published hundreds of articles online and in pri... View profile
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187 Comments
Post a CommentI was a member, but the first survey they wanted me to do was to get my credit score checked, then they would pay me $5. After that showed up, the site would not let me do anything else.
Scam.
I am a member of many online market research panels such as
mysury.com
myview.com just to name a few, the sad truth is that if surveys are almost always over $10 an hour it is usualy a scam.
If a company tells you that you can make over $15 an hour just doing surveys its a scam. Especially for vindale
This is true. It is a scam. When the $dollar amount reached $10.27 (which cannot be cashed in for real money) it stopped increasing the balance. Then after I attempted to do several survey's in one day, it ask me for financial information including all the details necessary to get into my accounts. It ask for my address too.
Watch Out!
Thanks for the post on this. It does indeed look like a real one.
Part 2: To the best of my ability, I did what was asked of me by Vindale. If I upgraded, it was completely unintentional. The format the got me "upgraded" is not clear obviously. I asked that the $29+ charges be removed, and the rep Lisa said no. I asked to speak to someone above her. Lisa said no one is above her who can help me.
I tried to contact Vindale and i received a recorded phone message saying they no longer offer phone contact support. Because a friend of mine is an assistant attorney general, he is guiding me to contact Vindale and Profinity 1st. If no response and relief, then AG offices will investigate both companies New York AG for Vindale, Florida AG for Profinity and TX because of my location.
I have learned the hard way what a scam Vindale is. Here is the e-mail that I have sent to them because they let you have the .50 here and the 1.00 there, but when you do something worth 50.00 or 100.00 it shows on your account for a bit, then, before it is verified for payment, it disappears. No nothing for symbols or signs, it just disappears from your account.
Attention Vindale Research People -
Why do you keep taking money from me?????? I have worked very hard for the large amounts of money because I need the money to keep my bills on. My gas was shut off Friday so I have NO hot water now. I know that you at Vindale do not care.
I completed the Direct TV survey, even switched from Comcast to Direct TV, even referred a friend to Direct TV, and you took the $100.00 out of my pending area. Just took it. No explanation, nothing, just took $100.00 after I had done everything that was require.
Then I logged in and there was another $40.00 missing. Where did tha
ALERT: I'm a representative of Vindale. If you get an email from Kim Christine Smith, do not open it. Those emails are NOT from us. If you have received one of those emails, please forward it to elizabeth@vindalemedia.com. Also, if you have any questions about Vindale, please email me or check out our:
* Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Vindale
* Blog: http://blog.vindale.com/
* Website: https://www.vindale.com/v/signIn.jsp
OMG! I knew this Kim Christine Smith person was a complete fraud the minutes I got the email. They make it look like they emailed you for a job. "Let me know if you can come in on May 28th", um, First of all, it's a holiday weekend and May 28th is a Saturday. Then hours go by and finally I get the famous email everyone is talking about "Oh, sorry... I answered the wrong ad! I was trying to respond back to somebody who applied for a receptionist job and I emailed you by mistake. I am so sorry.... but hey, if you're available to come in on Saturday for a study group.... Contact Josh.... I am super busy... " You've already seen the email in an above post. It was to the T, the same exact response back to me. I think it's really stupid that they're going around scamming people. But at the same time I think it's kind of funny seeing other people getting the same response to me. Just goes to show you, trust our gut. There may be a sucker born every
It totally depends on how you use the site. I don't recommend doing the stuff on the "My Surveys" tab at all for all the reasons that you've mentioned. However, if you stick to the "My Studies" tab (true opinion surveys), you can make pretty good money. I have managed to make payout every month for the last 6 months.
Kim Christine Smith
Panel Supervisor
PG Studies Inc.
Phone-(888)405-7420
Ex 34
Direct-(888)566-3354
Global Research You Can Count On!
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If you want to sign up for it, you can use the form on our site at infobiagourps.com/maysignup and give me a call at the office once you signed up, (888) 552-8301 and hit extension 34. I'll be in the office for another hour so you can call me now if you would like to ask any questions. If by chance you don't reach me this afternoon the best time to call is during the week around 6:30pm or so as I'm usually really busy during the day. You can also call Josh, at extension 23, as he's one of the panel coordinator's for this Saturday.
I can't make any guarantees since I'm not working on this particular panel, but I'll see what I can do if your interested. Anyway, good luck out there. And again, sorry for responding to your post unintentionally and waiting so late in the week to inform you about this! I figured doing this would make up for my little "mistaken identity" accident! Have a blessed day!
on a reply from me, I just wanted to let you know that it wasn't your ad I was responding to.
Kim
P.S.- If you want, I can see if I can get you in to the study group we are having this Saturday (May 21st) since I already contacted you anyway. The event is a one hour focus group discussion (pre-testing for an electronic product being released next year) , and its paying about $150 bucks. I'm not sure how old you are, but as long as your over 18, you should be able to get through (I'm assuming you are over 18).