Is this a scam?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I responded to an ad on Craigslist for an online data-entry position…a part-time, at home kind of job. The email I got back said :

Thank you for your interest. Here is the deal.What I am proposing to you is very simple and profitable.Provide feedback for firms and companies by filling out online survey forms and get paid for it. What you need is a computer and free time to do it. I am currently making═ from $200 - $350 a day using this system. This is a great way to get some extra income.

═══════════════ There are a lot of survey sites ( I’ve tried a lot of them) but the one i am talking about has the largest database of surveys.

═══════════════ Of course the site has a small ONE TIME fee, but you’ll be getting that back the first day. There are a few openings for new members but once the quota is met it will be invite only. So take this opportunity now, don’t wait until all the spots are taken.

So I think this is a scam, especially since there is an upfront fee. But what I want to know is, is there even a grain of truth in it…do companies really pay cash for online survey forms?

2

How are you supposed to respond if you are interested? How are you supposed to pay the “one-time fee”? Credit card, or what? I smell scam, but more information would help.

3

It has to be a scam. If they really needed to charge the fee they would take it out of your first paycheck. IMHO if you have to pay to apply for a job it is a scam.

4

Scam stay away.

5
  • There is an up-front fee.
  • There are “a few openings” left, implying ACT NOW!

It’s probably a scam. Be glad you only spent an email on it.

6

No one offering a legit job tells you that they are currently working the same job and then telling you what the salary is in terms of what they are making at it.

7

There was a link to a website…I didn’t click on it. Another link I’d clicked in another jobs ad led me to a website that wouldn’t go away, so I’m wary of clicking those links! And since this ad was headed “One more person needed” and there were four similar ads all posted around the same time, I figured there had to be some scam involved.

8

Any job which is substantially different from the ad, or the ad is misleading, is a fake.

Any job or money making opportunity which requires up front payment to provide work is 99.99999% likely to be fake or not worthwhile.

You can actually make money doing surveys, but it is chump change. I do 'em during slow times at work for a little bit of income on the side (say, $50 a month in cash and gift certificates). There are a lot of companies that are scams, and a lot of companies that just waste your time, but there are some legit market research companies if you look.

Through a national market research firm, I was referred to a local place last month for a focus group (done by my local board of health). That was neat, and I got $50 and free dinner for about an hour of time. But, the places that sell you information will take experiences like that and claim you can parlay it into a part-time job, which is just not going to happen. Typically the companies charging are just charging for information, they don’t actually provide the surveys.

There is one way to earn that much with surveys - it’s through referrals (which the industry is cracking down on a bit). Guess what their system is? Posting ads on Craigslist and selling info to suckers, and then getting a referral bonus on top of that.

I won’t post them here, but if you want info on some legit market research companies, I’ll send them to you - PM me.

9

Yeah, you don’t want to do that. With a little more information you could confirm it, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Even with the minuscule possibility that it’s legit, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a miserable existence.

10

When I was a little more naive I used to fill online surveys in but did’nt get paid for it but I DID get spammed almost to death and kept getting Boiler Room calls at strange times.

11

In very, very rare cases they do. Last survey I filled in I got a $100 Amazon certificate :eek:

12

I don’t even think it’s rare - it’s just that the payouts are generally not as high (they can be if you’re in a rare demographic though). I do surveys and a typical payout is 75 cents, $1.10, or whatever. I’ve been offered some $50 surveys but they’re usually very targeted - they want Swahili-speaking hula dancers in Omaha, Nebraska so they had better pay up. Some areas – particularly professional positions where you have significant purchasing authority – will pay a lot more than normal. IT seems a particularly good area.

I did pretty well for myself on the leadup to the Iowa caucus - as a young voter who had not caucused before but was planning to, I got about a zillion surveys about the candidates. At least one or two a week for months and months.

13

I tend to question any kind of ad that uses the word “system” in regards to a particular job description.

14

Two (only two) possibilities I see:

(1) They’re trying to scam you out of a one-time fee to buy some crappy “system” that will turn out to be the equivalent of a xeroxed list of companies that maybe, once, or theoretically, do surveys. From there you’re on your own. I’ve gotten these spams for “surveys,” “processing rebates at home” (not even sure what that would mean), and “making money with eBay.” I think the spams and the websites are created off a template because they are very samey.
(1)(a) slight chance there is an MLM twist to this.

(2) There are “surveys” but they are actually along the lines of those banner ads – “Which Is Better, Coke Or Pepsi – Vote Now And Get A Free Laptop.” If you ever take the time to click through those, you find out that it is not a “survey” at all (except in the sense they may ask for a bunch of information about your household income and hobbies so as to sell your name and contact detail to targeted marketing companies), and that completion of the “survey” so as to claim your prize requires completion of multiple (paid) “sponsor offers” (sign up for a year of Netflix, and open a Schwab account with a minimum deposit, and join Weight Watchers online). Needless to say, you would do the math and find out that the “prize” could be much more cheaply purchased on the open market than by buying a bunch of stuff you did not want.

I will second those who noted that (a) you don’t have to pay to get a legit job; (b) any “system” of making money is iffy – why would he be selling the how-to instead of just doing more of the system and keeping it to himself? © any bait and switch is an automatic red flag – if he was selling a “system” for taking surveys, why did he post it as a “job offer” for “data entry?” The question contains its own answer.

15

I’ve seen a million come-ons like this one, and it’s most definitely a scam.

Can you make money doing surveys? Yep, you certainly can, but it’s not much. I signed up to do surveys for a company that does market research for many industries and well-known commercial products.

The most I’ve ever received for doing a survey is $100, but that’s not typical. Usually I get between $4 and $10 per completed survey.

I receive approximately 4 survey requests a month. Some of them are screeners to see if I qualify to do the actual survey…these usually pay a bit more, say, $20 to $25, but they’re really long and take approximately 20 minutes or more to complete, however, your chances of getting one of these are minimal.

I don’t get paid for every survey I do. Most of them stipulate that I will receive the amount stated at the beginning only if I complete the survey, but since the surveys are constructed with multiple branches, and one doesn’t know which product or service the survey is really for until close to the end, and since most of the branches lead to a disqualification, I’d say I actually get paid for two of every four surveys I do.

Is it worth it? Nope. I make, on average, about $15 a month. Sometimes, if I’m really lucky and I’ve actually used/bought the products they’re interested in my feedback for, I’ll make $25, but that’s a really good month.

Also, for each survey I complete, my name is put into a drawing for $1000, which I’ve never won and am not holding my breath for.

So, why do I do surveys? Why not? I only do them during downtime, and hey, it’s fifteen bucks I didn’t have. It’s also a bit of a game for me as I always try to figure out which product/service the survey is for before I get disqualified or before the end.

Hope this helps.

16

There are tons of marketing companies that will pay you to fill out surveys. There are also plenty of companies making bogus offers related to same. It can be tough to separate the bona fide offers from the bunk, but if you are interested in this particular one but it looks dicey ask them to waive the initiation fee, if they won’t just try someone who will. Just google: paid fill out surveys.

17

As many dopers have said in many similar threads, has there ever been a thread along the lines of “Is this a scam?” where the consensus has been “no”? In other words, if it smells fishy, it’s probably fish.

18

I do several surveys online, and generally for some sort of payment. Harris Poll and Zoom Panel give you points for each survey that can be redeemed for gifts (2000 points gets you a CD, for instance, and surveys range from 50-100 points). Ipsos I-Say has this stupid “spin to win” game, which no one ever wins, but they seem to be switching to a point system and they did give me a $10 cash card. Consumer Research Panel pays cash on a cash card (I’ve gotten about $25), but that involves an ongoing shopping survey. I also won a blender from them.

So, yes, you can make money and earn gifts by taking a survey. But it’s nowhere near enough to pay your bills. If you want a couple of new music CDs every year, that’s what you can get.

And none of these ever ask for money in advance; they’ve never asked me for any money at all.

19

Totally a scam.

I do want to respond to the notion that any job that requires payment up front before you can take real work is most likely a scam, though. I’ve mentioned this a couple times, but my company is a legit work-from-home transcription service. It costs nothing to apply for a job, but there is a fee and a few tests before we allow you to take paying work. It definitely pays, and a couple of our transcriptionists make more than I do (they’re working their asses off constantly, though), but until you get that first paycheck I agree it looks very scammish.

Not that this really negates fluiddruid’s point, as we’re probably just that 0.00001%, but I just thought I’d mention it. I’d focus more on the fact that the job is vague, difficult to find out info about the company, the word ‘system’, etc. The one-time fee is a data point, but not necessarily THE indicator.