Paid Survey Sites: Tips for Making Real Money Without Getting Scammed

Yes!

Many companies need information about consumer preferences so that they can develop better products or hone their marketing campaigns. Some companies just want email addresses and mailing addresses to send advertisements about new products and services. For these reasons, paid survey sites exist to connect average consumers with companies who want their opinions.

Like any offer of "free money" that sounds too good to be true, there are a few catches with paid surveys. But for the most part, if you only complete legitimate offers and use the level of common sense the God gave to turds, your info will be kept safe and you will make a nice chunk of extra spending money.

PROS

• Surveys are easy to fill out and don't take very long either.
• With legitimate offers paying between $0.50 and $2.00, it's easy to make $20-$50 during your down time while you watch TV.
• Sometimes you learn about interesting products and offers that you didn't know about before.
• Paid survey sites often have generous referral programs that give you a nice bonus if you help other people join.
• You can keep your sensitive personal information private.

There are a few drawbacks that you should be aware of, but if you are internet savvy and have realistic expectations, you shouldn't let them deter you from using paid survey sites to make extra money.

CONS

• Surveys are boring and repetitive and you can only do so many before you burn out and seek more productive activities. (Read some Checkov, wash the dishes, give your spouse a back rub.)
• Legitimate surveys don't pay more than $1 or $2, so you have to do a lot to make good money.
• If you want to make decent money from referrals, you have to spend a lot of time spamming your referral link everywhere!
• You have to report your earnings to the IRS if you make more than $600 per year from paid surveys.
• It takes some practice to spot scams, but the tips below will keep you covered.

You may be wondering about the risks of filling out so many surveys and free registration forms with your personal information. Here are the essential tricks:

1. Set up a free email account that is only used for completing surveys--a junk mail account. Do not use your personal or business email account. This new account will get more spam than you can imagine, but you'll never have to check it except to confirm a few offers.
2. Get a free voicemail and fax number from k7.net. Many surveys require a working phone number, but if you don't want to receive calls from telemarketers everyday, use the free k7 service instead. The voicemails are sent to your junk mail email account and you never have to listen to them. k7 is an anonymous service, and you don't need to supply any verifiable information in order to get a free voicemail account.
3. Don't use your real home address unless you are actually interested in receiving more info. If you need to fill out an address to receive credit for filling out a survey, use the address of a big box store or an empty lot. It just needs to be an address that the US Postal service can confirm. You can also use the address of an abandoned building. No harm no foul.
4. Don't use your real name and birthday, but make up something believable. If you fill out every survey as "John Smith" born Jan 1, 1901, the paid survey sites will not give you credit for completing an offer because the info is obviously fake.

And here are some cardinal no-no's

1. Never use the info of a real person without his or her permission. It's mean, and could get you into a ton of trouble if you are caught.
2. Never complete offers or registrations that require a Credit Card Number or Social Security Number.!! Even turds know this.
   

One of the most discussed paid survey sites is Cashcrate. If you Google "cashcrate scam," you will find nearly a hundred articles and blog posts arguing whether it is or it isn't a scam. In reality, some of the Cashcrate offers are big time scams, but most are legitimate. Cashcrate has a number of credit card rebate offers, where you buy a sample and then get credited with more than the purchase price. These are the offers that should raise red flags.

Some people report frivolous charges made to their credit cards after completing these offers. Often the survey taker simply forgot to cancel some service after a specified time period. Sometimes hidden charges are laid out in the very fine print, and if survey takers don't read carefully, they can get ripped off.

Other Cashcrate offers may result in weird charges to your cell phone bill. The fine print on the offers will say if you will be charged for receiving texts, so it's up to you to read everything closely. Then again, just use the dummy number from k7.net and you'll have no problems.

The vast majority of Cashcrate offers are legit and safe. If you come a across an offer that requires a credit card number or SSN, just skip it and do the easy surveys instead. Common sense should tell you that the more money a survey promises, the more likely it is a scam.