Misleading Website Number 1:

I downloaded this report from http://www.top2005scams.com/  and decided to include it here, with full credit.  This is not all of the site, if you want to check it out yourself, please do so.

The reasons for including it are first, that it pretty accurately describes the scammy side of the paid survey business, and second, it illustrates how hard it is to get good info!

Here is the report: 

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Paid Surveys Scams Revealed  
No.1 2005 Home Job Scam

"Dec 5 2006
From the desk of David Grisman - Online Fraud Investigator

Dear Friend,

You are here because you have probably seen ads like these:

• Get Paid $150/hour to complete online surveys
• Home Job - 200$/hour
• Earn $200/Hr Taking Surveys Online
• Earn Up to $4000/month completing Surveys.
• Get paid $100/hour. Fun Job. Work from home. etc...

Amazingly, if you visit any job or money related website chances are high that you will see at least 2-3 paid surveys ads. They seem to be everywhere.

Why are these paid surveys sites advertised so hard?

Well..simply because they promise money, and that is something that we all need more.

OK...so can you actually get paid to complete online surveys?

Yes and No..yes there are legitimate surveys companies (1%) that will pay you money to answer surveys and no..you will probably not going to be paid because you will fall out for the scams of the other 99% survey sites.

Unfortunately .....These days almost anyone can create a so-called "paid surveys" website in a matter of a few hours. And most only have one intent - making you pay to become a member of their website just so they can supposedly tell you where to go on the internet to find surveys that actually pay. But all they actually do is provide you with a list of useless links to companies that no longer exist, or more companies that want you to pay more money to join their website as well!

Most of these websites will charge you a $30-$100 fee for access to their directory of "high-paying" survey sources. But in reality, 99% of these websites offer you nothing more than the following:

• Outdated directories & resources with non-working links, phone numbers, & email addresses.
• No customer service or help available.
• No refunds if you are unsatisfied - Most of these fly-by-night paid survey websites won't even respond to your refund requests, and once their website gets shut down due to complaints, they start another one under a different name.
• Poorly designed sites with confusing navigation systems and information, and non-working pages.
• A lot of surveys that pay little or no money at all.

As a watchdog for work at home scams, i have thoroughly reviewed hundreds of paid survey websites, talking to their owners, reviewing their member's areas, and speaking to many of their clients & workers. Based on my research, as of July 2005, i only recommend 3 paid survey websites out of the hundreds i've looked at, as they are the only ones that have met my stringent standards to be sources for daily work. These companies all require a one time fee of $30-$60, and they charge this fee because they actually have dedicated representatives to help you find work on a daily basis. Not only that, Surveyscout - my #1 pick - also provides you with your first paid survey immediately upon joining, in which you will earn $25 for taking a short 5 minute survey. Subtract that from their fee and you are only actually paying $10 to join, and you are getting a reputable source for daily work.

Each of the sites i recommend below offer a no questions asked, 100% money-back guarantee for up to 90 days. And i have verified that these companies live up to this guarantee. So you can actually try their services out for 3 months and if you're not happy with the results, they will refund your money with no questions asked.

After joining any of the sites below, you can expect to receive up to 25 daily offers to take surveys that pay $15-$25 each. Every now and then you will also receive surveys to take that pay up to $75. These that pay so well usually take up to a half hour to complete. Not bad for $75 bucks. The others typically take 5-15 minutes.

So go ahead and check out my recommendations below, and see which one you feel suits you best. You will need to dedicate 3-4 hours daily for this kind of work if you want to make $300+/day. If you want to earn more or less, its all up to you, and how much you want to work.

Best Regards,

- David Grisman
Top2005Scams.com

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Observations: (My comments follow, in dark green text)

Mr. Grisman goes on to name his three picks, starting with Survey Scout.  At the end there is a form to fill out for:

Top2005Scams.com Free Newsletter

Receive latest scams alert and reviews by email.
Sign-up for Top2005Scams Newsletter.

At the end of the form, this notice appears:

"( you will be forwarded to SurveyScout website
after you sign-up for the free newsletter)"

Which, when I signed up, I was immediately taken to the SurveyScout signup page!  

This leaves some strong questions about the objectivity of the reporter and the report.  I suppose that everyone has to make a living somehow. But at the end, this began to look like a, "Set up the straw men, knock 'em over, then go for the hard sell..." type of sales approach! 

I signed up for the newsletter and my signup was acknowledged.  It will be interesting to see what future communications bring...[Update as of October 11, 2007, I have only received one sales message from this signup, and that was several months ago.]

My Comments:

1. The most serious problem mentioned with bad sites is, "No refunds if you are unsatisfied " 

By sticking with ClickBank clients (those paid survey companies that send you to ClickBank to pay them) this can be easily overcome.  ClickBank is the financial agent for their vender-clients.  They collect the money from credit cards, etc. and pass it to the merchant after deducting their commission and after holding back 10% as a reserve against possible future refunds!.  ClickBank has a 2 month guarantee and THEY, the financial company-banker for the transactions, WILL live up to their guarantee! And they will charge all refunds back to their vender-client's account. After 90 days they pay any unused funds left in the refund reserve account they are holding, to their vender-client.

AND they will delist anyone with an unreasonably high level of complaints!  I don't know what a reasonable level is, but I note that there are almost no companies registered at ClickBank which have a refund rate as high as 1 in 5 (20%).

And if you watch them over time, as I do, you will note that those that DO have 20+% refund rates either improve shortly or they disappear from the list!

[I would infer from that observation that maybe the "Red line" rate for refunds is 20% or very close to that number. Check out the ClickBank Refund Policy Page. You can see that ClickBank REALLY gets ON their clients if they get chargebacks from customers' banks! As fierce as the sanctions are you can bet that the paid survey guide company you choose really and truly does NOT want you to get mad and tell your bank that you got ripped off, please cancel the charge!  To avoid this they have a great incentive to keep their customers satisfied. ] 

2. The author seems a little loose with his numbers.  He says, "...the scams of the other 99% survey sites."  Then later says 92% scams [actually it's 92.54%. I suppose that's close enough to 92 :-) ].  99% is clearly a gross overstatement. 

I compare this with our top 20 sites, among which 10 have a refund rate of  between 1 in 11 to 1 in 24 clients (8.89% to 4.11%).  And his top pick, Survey Scout, has a refund rate of 1 in 6 clients (17.69%) and is now in our "Penalty Box"!.

[I have nothing against them but maybe Survey Scout is just really good at getting high ratings from "rate-ers".  It might be better to listen to their clients' opinions about them, as expressed in the high refund rate, than what the so-called raters say...]

It would seem to me that the percentage of customers demanding refunds is most likely a more powerful indicator of truth that some outsider's subjective opinion.  And the fact that there are 70 Paid Survey companies still listed with ClickBank indicates a substantially higher number of viable, legitimate, real companies in the business than the 13 that the author reported.

So what is happening here? Are we seeing a situation like that of a man organizing a beauty contest that he wants his rather plain-looking daughter to win?  Who does he get for participants?  If he wants her to win he recruits the worst-looking bunch of contestants he can find, right?  ;-)

3. The bottom line is that there ARE many scams out there.  In view of that fact it would be a good idea to check out results and reputations before buying-in to ANY Paid Survey services.

With a strong refund guarantee, however, you have a "safety net".  There is no way you can lose your money! If your first choice doesn't work out, you can still pull away, get your money back and try another company.  That's the worst case scenario.  Best (and most likely) case is that you will find yourself among the 85-96% who feel that they received full value and are satisfied and happy with their choice.

Jorge Chavez 

for Survey Sentinel