Yes, Darlings, CashCrate is a Scam ...

Is CashCrate a scam? It's doubtful that you'll get the whole truth about CashCrate unless you're lucky enough to know about a site called RipOffReport.com. A Google search reveals an inordinate of websites with the term "CashCrate scam" that proceed to tell you why it is not a scam after you click on the link to a website or blog. This should be your head's up: Whenever a website like CashCrate churns up this many links defending its online honor, be very, very afraid ...

In effort to debunk survey site scams and other online "work at home" offers, this author did all the testing and research so you won't have to find out the hard way. CashCrate.com starts off innocuously enough by asking you for an email address and password. You willingly comply. Then you go to a screen with a short video that shows you a list of possible surveys and how to take them. Most pay anywhere between 30 and 75 cents per survey. The narrator with the soothing voice assures you that's all there is to it. But before you calculating how many surveys you have to whip through to make minimum wage on CashCrate, go to the next screen, where you must enter your residential address and phone number. The next queue takes you to ...

Holy moley, what's this stuff -- ? A screen with all sorts of consumer products listed on it. Now you're being asked if you want a "free trial" of quack weight loss pills, nutritional supplements, magazines, miracle wrinkle cream -- if you're lucky, you'll get an offer from an online community college somewhere in Duluth that will assiduously contact you about paralegal classes. Because you've joined CashCrate to complete surveys and not to buy anything, of course you click on the "NO" buttons, only to be routed to another screen with ... yet more trial offers. When you attempt to click "NO" once more, you are informed that you must sign up with at least one trial offer before you start taking surveys. So you sigh and whip out your credit card --

Hold it! That's just what CashCrate wants you to do. Once your credit card information is entered, you are beholden to whatever snake oil you agree to "try." Because most people forget that their credit card is charged after the free trial expires, they end up paying $50, $100 or whatever the cost for a miracle wrinkle-reducing cream that they never wanted to begin with. All for the privilege of taking a few lousy surveys. Here are some general rules about survey sites: If you have to pay to join, they're bunk. If you get screens filled with "trial offers" that you must complete before getting to the actual site, close the computer window. And never, ever give you real phone number; RipoffReport.com is filled with complaints from people who joined survey sites like CashCrate only to be harassed 24/7 by telemarkters. If you've given your credit or debit card number to any of these sites for a "trial" offer, contact your bank and inform them of the situation -- they may be able to reverse the charges, or at least make sure that your credit card isn't charged for anything else.

Oh, and I really hope that you used a junk email account that you can trash after you figure out the nefarious mechanisms driving CashCrate. This author does not want to share with you how quickly her "scam email" account was filled after joining CashCrate.

CashCrate does make a lot of money for those who know how to work the system. But they aren't the people taking the surveys -- they're the affiliate marketers who sucker you into joining CashCrate, dear friends. Affiliate marketers know that Joe and Jane Q. Public are onto wild claims about survey sites make them thousands of dollars a month. So they'll down-peddle it: "Well, I didn't make too much this month, only about $500, but CashCrate is legit ..." Well, to your mind, $500 is still a lot. And it's just believable enough for you to take a stab at it.

Actually, the people who claim to be making money on CashCrate probably are, but they're not doing it by taking 30-cent surveys. Whenever you see a banner on someone's blog or website for CashCrate and you click on it to sign up with CashCrate you become their "referral," and someone you don't know is making money while you're clicking on "No, No, No" and "NO." You can make a lot of money on CashCrate, if you promote it on your blog and website and get people to join it. As for the actual surveys themselves? RipoffReport.com says, "Yeah ... good luck with that."

I'm sure right now there are a few affiliate marketers who are quite upset with this author for being truthful. But someone should, friends. The economy is tough, babies. You need your money in your pocket, not invested in a product or service you don't really want but feel that you have to buy just so you can ... well, make money. We can all buy, sell, trade, and share meaningful, honest ways of making a living online without turning the Internet into one big pyramid scheme.