The Risks You Take in Paid Online Surveys

With plethora of things to do online such as games, social networking, and shopping to name a few, job opportunities have also swamped the net.

Today, many people have depended on the net to apply for jobs, find work, as well as search for employees. Aside from the popular online writing jobs, the booming activity in the Internet is the paid online surveys. The paid online surveys'appeal is the “work from home” system as well as being paid for every little effort and energy exerted.

However, what many do not know are the several risks that come along with paid online surveys. These risks work both ways – the companies that administer them and the people who take them.

Web sites offering online surveys

There are several Web sites that offer a varied systems and mechanism of online surveys. Some even cater to specific group of people such as the age category, the racial division, and a lot others. But the common denominator of these sites is rewarding system: paying participants for filling out online surveys. It should be noted that each site has unique reward systems.

So how these sites generally work? First, they ask participants to register at the Web site and answer some basic contact and login information. Then, the participant will receive an e-mail with a link that directs to a page asking for more detailed demographic such as sex, marital status, education level, and race. After which, participants will receive intermittent e-mails with links to surveys that correspond to the demographic.

Though the duration varies, but most surveys take an average of 10 to 20 minutes to fill up. Some sites give reward based on how long the survey was completed. For example in e-Rewards, it gives $29 for one-hour completion of survey. In a case where a participant does not qualify for the survey, a partial award is given for some instances.

In paying off the participants, sites have varied reward systems. Some send an actual check, while others let participants accumulate points to be encashed for rewards.

Possible risks

One of the foremost risks of paid online surveys for companies is the credibility of such surveys. With this kind of method, participants can actually cheat and lie to take more surveys—thus to be paid more. Sometimes, people may lie on demographic profile to be able to qualify to take surveys. In other cases, people sign up for the same companies with multiple different addresses to be able to take more surveys using varying profiles. The quality of the surveys can be compromised when people begin to make cases as mentioned above.

On the participants end, there is a higher possibility for signing up on scam Web sites. Participants should by now know that paid online surveys have become haven for Internet scam. Participants should beware f the middlemen who charge registration fee for accessing the lists of surveys, which in fact are free.

Tips for avoiding paid survey scams

Participants should avoid signing up with Web sites requiring charge for accessing surveys. They should read privacy statements and disclaimers. And the more the site defends itself as legal, the more likely it is a scam.