Legitimate or Scam? Paid Survey Secrets

If you're interested in becoming a paid panelist (survey taker), there are a few things you should know before you end up with an inbox full of spam. Register, Earn, Redeem! Pretty simple and straight forward right? Not necessarily so, there are several ways that sites use to mislead you without making any direct promises. It's easier to find information if you know what you're looking for and where you should look. From misleading descriptions to fine print notices here's how to spot a less-than-legitimate paid survey site or any other offer for that matter.

Let's cover the usual three easy steps to make money through a site. Register, Earn, Redeem. There are a few things that make this process not nearly as simple as it seems. When you register, you are agreeing to the site's Terms of Service. These are full of important information as these are the site's fine print. As goes with anything in life, failure to read the fine print can leave you feeling caught off guard, ripped off and scammed. While the TOS are usually pretty lengthy and wordy, it's important to read them carefully because they are your first and most defining clues about the site's legitimacy.

So what's in that fine print anyway? Well, one of the most frustrating and dishonest terms in the fine print is the site's ability to change the rules at any point for any reason. If this is in the TOS, consider it a big red flag. Another wonderful thing that you agree to in some of the "Terms of Service" is to receive emails. Basically this is spam and you'll usually get a couple of them daily directly from that website. In addition, some of them also have in their TOS that you agree to receive emails from their affiliates and partner sites. This adds another few spam emails per day to your inbox.

Another less obvious term you may find in the TOS is the statement that the member uses the site at the member's own risk. Similar terms might be "as-is." You may be able to fix a vehicle with this sort of non-guarantee but you can't do much about a website scamming you out of precious time. On the subject of time, some of these sites also have requirements that meet minimum participation requirements within a limited time frame. If this is the case, avoid this site. Legitimate companies do not require that you complete a certain amount of surveys, offers or anything else. In fact, they state that there are certain demographics that each survey is looking for and that you may not qualify for any given survey.

If a website relies on merchants, affiliates or advertisers to report your participation and completion of an offer, consider a loop hole for their benefit. Once you have completed an "offer" the merchant has already benefited from you and have no further motivation to report your participation. Other terms to look for are statements saying that the site is not obligated to credit members unless they receive confirmation of your completion. A legitimate site will have contact information for you to resolve any issues that may arise.

Similarly, the TOS may state that it is at their sole discretion to credit points and it is solely the responsibility of the merchant to report a members participation, conveniently (for the site not the member) it is also at the site's sole discretion to reverse points awarded if their later reports show that they received less than the original report showed. So, in a nutshell, they don't have to give you the points but they reserve the right to reverse any points awarded.

If you do find a site you feel comfortable signing up with, check that site or company with a site that lists scams and complaints such as SurveyPolice. Once you have signed up with your chosen company, pay attention to the first "survey" you get or are prompted to complete. If this survey contains yes/no answers and is filled with products and services asking which ones you are interested in, don't bother wasting any more of your time on it. That is considered their survey, and your big prize? An inbox full of spam and offers from every single product and service you showed any interest in. Legitimate companies do not have these types of surveys. A survey through a legitimate company will be on one specific brand, product or service.

All hope is not lost when it comes to oline surveys, or any other online opportunity. If you are looking for legitimate online companies you can go to sites that recommend or rate companies such as 10xmore and read through forums, blogs and the comments left at the bottom of articles. Regardless of where any recommendation comes the bottom line is the usual rule of thumb that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Also, never pay money to make money online. Legitimate companies don't charge you to work for them. Consider this...how many interviews have you been on that required you to pay the interviewer to release the job description details?