4 Tips To Help Avoid Paid Survey Scams

Well, the term basically refers to tricks that relieve you of your money by deception.

Most scam websites will offer the earth and actually give you little or nothing in return. They achieve this through poor quality products, non existent products or vastly exaggerated performance of the products.

Paid survey scams are actually quite easy to avoid as long as you take some time to do your research rather than just act on the spur of the moment. Below are four useful tips that will greatly reduce your chances of getting scammed, not only by paid surveys sites, but just about anyone else you may consider buying from online.

1. Check with the BBB (Better Business Bureau)

A great way of avoiding scams is to check with the BBB for complaints against specific online paid survey sites and their owners.

Don’t, however, use this as your only method of research because, if a particular website isn’t listed, it doesn’t mean that all of it’s members are happy with the service, it just means nobody has yet made a complaint to the BBB about it.

Combine the information you find at the BBB with the next tip and you will have a much broader overall picture.

2. Have A Look Around Scam Forums

Scam forums are also a great way of doing background research. Two that I have used in the past are RipOffReport.com and Scam.com. You will find a wealth of information contained here from other consumers who have had bad experiences with certain sites.

Again, don’t take everything you read as gospel because large, highly trafficked websites will always have the odd one or two people that aren’t satisfied but what you will tend to find is that certain sites have recurring problems that keep appearing in posts and these are the ones you want to stay away from.

3. Be Wary of sites with a PO Box address or only an email contact

A legitimate paid survey company will have a proper address and contact details listed somewhere on their site.

I personally will never now do business with companies that have PO Box addresses because I have been burned too many times in the past. Always look for a website that is completely upfront and has no problem with proving that they are a legitimate business.

You can also check the Whois directory and make sure that the information you are given ties in with when the owners originally registered the website.

4. Don’t Chase Easy Money

As I’ve mentioned before, you can make some decent money with paid surveys but it does take a considerable amount of time and some of these sites claiming you can instantly start making $500 a day are just a joke!

Many people have a real habit of coming across a professional looking website offering an easy solution to their problem and impulse buy whatever’s being offered because they get gripped by some slick sales copy.

You have to appreciate that everyone is competing for business and all websites are going to talk up what they offer in order to make sales but many scammers rely on impulse buyers to keep them going.

If more consumers took a step back from what appears on their screen and did 5 minutes of background research these people would go out of business very quickly.

So make sure you don’t get caught out with paid survey scams by joining someone reputable and take the time to thoroughly research the company before giving away any of your hard earned cash.