Taking surveys online is highly exciting as you will generally get to review and provide your feedback on products that are still not launched in the market. Not only do you get to know about a product or ad before it is released, you will also be compensated for reviewing the same.
Taking up surveys online is fairly exciting and you will definitely enjoy doing it. However, has it ever struck you that you will also providing a lot of personal details when you participate in a survey and it might have dangerous effects on you?
Although you would definitely try to stay away from scams and fake survey sites, you will be shocked to see the number of websites that are a replica of the popular and trustworthy survey sites such as Toluna, MySurvey, GlobalTestMarket and Opinion Outpost.
If you ever get caught in one of these surveys, it might have dangerous outcomes as they will get to know a lot about you.
Although it is not highly dangerous, fake survey sites will definitely cause you some harm. You will waste your time taking surveys and it will not pay you for the work you have done. Although you will realize that the survey site is a fake one within a matter of few days, you will still have lost your precious time.
There are other survey sites that assure you to pay upfront, but will ask you to pay a certain amount for signing up. The first rule to taking surveys is that you should never pay for taking surveys.
There is another type of survey sites that will try to lay hands on your personal information and might cause harm to your computer.
It starts by installing a malware in your computer using which they will be able to read all your confidential information and might result in ID theft.
Among the non-harmful but fake survey sites, they simply collect all your personal information and sell it spam websites, so that they can spam your inbox.
In such a dangerous world of survey sites out there, everyone will be worried on how to protect themselves from fake sites. We bring to you a few tips if you are taking surveys online so that you can stay safe and not be a victim of scams.
Use a separate e-mail id for surveys
You can create an e-mail id in the matter of minutes. Create one before you start taking surveys and exclusively use this e-mail id to take part in surveys.
At any point of time, if you realize that you have been a victim of a fake surveys and they have access to your personal information, you have nothing to worry about as the e-mail id you would be using will not have any personally identifiable information.
Do not pay to take a survey
There are multiple survey sites that will ask you to pay a fee if you want to take part in a survey. ALWAYS stay away from such surveys.
You can also do your research on the internet before concluding that the survey site is a scam. There are hundreds of legitimate survey sites out there in the internet that will never ask you to pay money to take a survey.
Never pay money to take a survey, no matter how tempting or luring the offer may seem.
Do some research
Before you plan to join a new survey site, try to know more about that survey site from Google. You will always find information on Google and you can also lookup for the rating of the survey company on BBB.
Make sure that you spend time researching about the company before you put in your time in taking the survey.
You will hardly have to spend 15 minutes on the internet to know more about the company and its reliability, due to which you can stay safe from scams and fake websites.
Read the Privacy Policy and Terms
The most basic requirement of any survey website is to ensure that your information will be maintained strictly confidential and will not be disclosed to third parties. If you do not come across any content like this, immediately press the close button.
Go through the other points mentioned in the terms and conditions and make sure that you understand it. It is a good idea to also explore the reward process of the survey company and get to know more about how the survey companies reward you.
Rely on your instinct
You might have to trust on your instincts as well. When you are researching about a survey company and if you feel something amiss, back out. Do not divulge any personal information.
You can always resume using the survey site once you find it to be legitimate. Until you are fully convinced, stay away from the site and most often, you will be glad that you stayed away.
There are several legitimate sites as well as several fake sites. Make sure that you carry out your research before you join any of the sites and it will prove to be beneficial for sure. There are some websites that look similar to the original one but are scams.
Beware of such websites and navigate to the correct site. Once you start taking surveys, you will realize about the true survey sites and identifying scams will be a matter of few minutes for you once you start taking surveys.
