It seems that there isn’t a single area of the internet that hasn’t been hit with the old scam bug. Wherever there’s money to be made, you can bet people will devise shady methods of promoting a new type of service in that field, while actually doing nothing of the sort. Their only goal is to remove you of your hard-earned money, after which point you’ll likely never hear from them again. There are plenty of warning signs when it comes to scams in general, and these often hold true of paid survey scam sites as well.

The good news is that you’re wary and searching for information on the subject, which is the absolute best thing you can do. Arming yourself with the power of knowledge, you can cast aside the darkness of ignorance and expose these propagating scam sites for what they are. So why target the paid surveys genre? It’s quite simple really. Paid surveys are one of the most well-known means of earning an income from home, which amounts to two things. More potential people to scam, and perhaps even more importantly, many people who are newcomers to the internet and making money online, and are likely more gullible than the veteran web surfer.

A well written sales pitch, some phony testimonials, and a shiny, professional looking exterior is all it takes to convince many people that these sites are legitimate. They end up shelling out a good deal of money and getting next to nothing in return. These scam sites usually have naught but links to free sites that could be easily found on one’s own.

A common paid survey scam is for companies to charge users for the right to do individual surveys. Whether you’re with a free or paid survey site, this should never be the case. The company is most likely skimming money from the top, or simply won’t send you money. In conjunction with this, these sites often have minimum payout amounts before you’ll receive any money. You’ll need to continually pay them for surveys, and by the time you reach the minimum payout amount, you’ll realize they aren’t going to pay you, and you just lost all the money you invested in the surveys, as well as the time it took to complete them.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are many legitimate sites which offer services which may seem like a paid survey scam, but actually are not. One of the most misunderstood and mistrusted of these is the product review job, which requires you to pay the shipping on an item so that you can receive and review it. These most often are not scams at all, but legitimate tasks. You’ll get to keep the product, as well the money you’ll earn from writing up the review of it.

Another common system which may seem like a scam at first glance is the points reward system. This one is similar to the minimum payout amount scam, as it will take a number of surveys to complete before you have a chance to claim any reward. These points systems are not scams though, and will reward diligent survey takers with some nice merchandise after enough surveys have been taken.

Be wary and follow our advice of what likely constitutes a paid survey scam and what doesn’t, and you’ll be well on your way to having an enjoyable online survey taking experience.