Online Surveys for Cash

If you've been online for more than a week you are aware of all of the thousands upon thousands of work at home opportunities available to you. One of the more popular of these is doing online surveys for cash.  While there are legitimate companies that offer this opportunity to you, there are also those that will try and scam you in the process. 

Online, there are hundreds if not thousands of sites offering online surveys.  While a few of them can bring in a few extra dollars here and there, they will in no way make you rich.  These companies target work at home Moms who want to make a few extra dollars here and there while taking care of their children at home.  They also target those who are unemployed, and even the elderly. 

Some of these companies prey on those who don't know any better and use down-and-dirty methods.  Here are what some of these scams can consist of:

1.  A fee to join.  Some companies require that you pay a fee to join.  They'll offer you an opportunity to earn up to $100,000 a year simply sitting at home and taking surveys.  Oftentimes the fees aren't that much, around $50 or so.  If this were true and everyone could earn this kind of money a year simply by taking online surveys, then there would be no need for other jobs in this world.  These sites prey on those who simply don't know any better.  By the time you figure out that this is in fact just another "get rich quick" scheme, you're already out your $50. 

2.  The cell phone scam.  This is a popular scam in which you are asked for your cell phone number in order to "confirm" your membership.  A few moments after you enter in your cell phone number, you'll receive a phone call which *surprise* ends up costing you anywhere from $1.95 to $4.95.  These companies usually don't charge much when they call you simply because they don't think you'll miss that small amount of money on your cell phone bill.  However, when you have enough people falling for this "scam", you can see how the numbers will add up for the company. 

3.  The Switcheroo.  With this scam, you end up participating in a survey and then are directed to another website.  They will ask you if you are interested in obtaining more information from one of their marketing partners.  As you answer "no", you will continue to get more offers until you eventually are required to answer "yes" to one of them in order for you to get your money from participating in the survey.  When you do answer "yes", you will then receive tons of emails and/or phone calls about the subject you chose "yes" to.  Another variation to this kind of scam is that when you sign up to receive a "free" sample of a product and only have to pay for shipping and handling, you'll think "what a deal!"  What you may not notice however, is that after a certain amount of time, they will charge you anywhere from $19.99 to $79.99 / month to continue to receive this product.  When you do decide to cancel, you'll have to jump through multiple hoops just to get the item removed.

4.  The phone bill scam.  In this one, you sign up for a survey company and give them your telephone number.  Then you will move on and complete a survey to get an offer for a free magazine.  Getting a free issue of a magazine usually isn't an issue, however, when you give them your name and address for the magazine, the fee will show up on your telephone bill.  If you red the find print you will see that when you provided the company with your name and address to get this free magazine, you authorized them to bill you on your telephone bill.  Again, like the cell phone scam, they'll assume you won't notice the charge. 

These are just a few of the scams you can encounter online when doing surveys. 

While taking online surveys can be fun (and some of them are even legitimate), don't give out your cell phone number, credit card number, bank number or social security number.  Do some research before participating in online surveys, if they ask you to pay a fee prior to participating, let them go.  And whatever you do, don't become involved in any online surveys for cash schemes that promise to make you rich.