Online survey scams

You have surely seen them -- get paid to take our online surveys. Some of them promise you very little money, some promise at least as much as $75 per survey to participate. Now... here's what they DON'T tell you.

Going through these surveys, you will be doing "product evaluations". To do the evaluations, you have to PURCHASE the product or service, which you are NOT, by the way, getting any discounted price for (and more than likely getting it an inflated price so the manufacturer or service provider can kick back to the survey company.) If they're paying you $75 to take this survey, it's because you've already had to shell out very near all of that in order to get the product you're supposed to evaluate. That's not to mention that there may be a recurring monthly charge for the service you are supposed to be evaluating.

Whether the product or service is something you need or want is of no consequence whatsoever. The point is you will be putting very little, if any, money into your bank account that you haven't already had to pay out as part of this survey team.

Now, add to that the fact that your email address, and possibly your mailbox as well as your phone is going to be constantly bombarded with sales pitches. Your personal information is ALSO going to be sold to hundreds, if not thousands, of companies looking to get rich off of selling their products to you. It isn't enough that they likely get kickbacks from the companies they're promoting you to buy products and services from.

So, don't go into any dealings with these companies thinking you're going to make over $50k/yr. Think more along the lines of $500/yr profit and you'll be closer to right, but only if you do it all day long, every day of the year.

There really isn't any such thing as a free lunch.