Panda Research: A Scam in the Making

I am not much of a fan of getting paid to complete surveys as most anyone who reads my my blog Paid Online Opportunities knows. In fact I usually suggest to my readers to avoid these opportunities because invariably you will wind up with an e-mail box full of spam and very little to account for your time spent completing surveys. But...like anyone else I'm always on the lookout for a way to make money online. So, when a very legitimate individual for whom I have a lot of respect suggested Panda Research as being a legitimate company through which you could make some money completing surveys, my first thought was "what the heck? I'll give it a shot." I got another e-mail address so my regular one wouldn't get spammed into the next universe, and signed up.

I'll be honest I got suckered in by the thought of being able to sign up for free to complete surveys that I could then make up to $30 a piece on. Sucker is the operative word here folks. Imagine my surprise when even the surveys that paid $1 or $2 (these were the ones the reputable person suggested completing) could only be paid if you completed an offer that was then attached to a monthly fee once the trial was over. I think of the entire list there was only one survey for $1 that this was not the case, and in order to find it I had to sign into their page and look really hard for it.

What a waste of time! Panda Research may not have started out to scam people, but with a system like this, they are fast on their way to getting there. Many of the surveys appear to be legitimate and some don't even appear to be attached to an offer that will cost you later until you actually fill out the first page. Then you get taken to a page that says basically, "You can only be credited for this survey if you complete the offer, or sign up for something." Sometimes it will say that you have to sign-up or give your e-mail or something like that, but once you go through to the next page there's usually an offer attached in order to get paid. I was not a happy camper when this kept happening to me every time I thought I might have found a survey I could complete and make a dollar or two from.

The other not so nice thing about this particular survey company is that the minimum payout is $100, and you can only be paid by check. Now, given the fact that finding a survey that is not attached to an offer that will cost you later is nearly impossible, you can see how making that minimum cash payout would be very difficult. The only way to do it is if you are willing to complete offers and then worry about having to cancel all those services before the trial periods are over, and or to get referrals.

Panda Research is not in my opinion a legitimate get paid to complete surveys company. While they do have a referral program, why in the world would you refer someone just so they can be scammed too? That is the only reason I can think of that anyone would refer this company. Not because the people referring them are deliberately trying to scam you, they're just trying to make their $100 on referrals instead of completing surveys! While I can understand people wanting to make money online, I cannot personally in all honesty refer this company for the reasons listed in the article, even though I could make $5 per referral.