Online survey scams?
By glblguy
Yesterday I received an email from a reader that concerned me and I felt you should be aware of:
Hi, I just thought I would pass on a warning to you about something that
happened to me doing online surveys.Today, at my door via the US post, a box full of Dr. Suess books showed up.
I didn’t order these and my daughter is 13 so we have no use for them.
I called the number on the invoice right away and cancelled my account. When I was speaking to the nice lady there, she told me that she had at least 60 calls TODAY about these online survey places that just add a person’s name to their mailing lists. That’s how this happened.
She listed three (from glblguy: “I’m intentionally not linking to them”):
Coolsavings
Eversave
Value ClickShe warned me to look out for other things that may show up and to call and cancel them right away.
I thought I would alert you to what is going on and perhaps you might warn your readers.
She was very nice and obviously upset at the extra work she now has to do and did cancel my account immediately.
I’m not a huge advocate of online survey’s as I just don’t find it time well spent for the money, but I do complete them from time to time and am open to trying out new sites. For example, I’m trying out Lightspeed Consumer Panel right now based on a reader recommendation. While it would seem there are number of very reputable companies out there, as with everything there are also a few rotten apples and even a few that would be considered online survey scams.
Doing some relatively quick research on all three of these survey companies, I found a few complaints about information being provided to third parties. The most common complaint, and the one common across all three services was users being signed up and charged for voicemail services on their home phone number. Eversave even spammed one of my articles with an advertising comment yesterday. That’s enough to keep me from ever using them.
Thus far, I’ve used the following survey companies without issue:
- Mypoints – There are a number of complaints from users around crediting of points, but the reports are older.
- Mysurvey – Seems to be one of the oldest and most reputable survey companies. I’ve had decent success with them thus far, and seem to continue to get a number of surveys.
- Lightspeed Consumer Panel – Still a new user of Lightspeed, but so far so good.
- Opinion Outpost – Very new to this one as I just started last week. So I couldn’t honestly say there aren’t any issues, but so far so good.
I would recommend doing a little research before signing up with any online survey sites. Almost every survey sites wants your personal information so they can target surveys for you. I do highly recommend you read through the companies user agreement and/or privacy policy to see what they can and cannot do with your personal information. I know they can be long and full of legalease, but it just may save you some considerable hassle.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Just last week I started getting about 15 calls a day from solicitors who claimed to get my number from online surveys. I even had a nice young man from the Navy show up at my door to try and recruit me! I’m not sure how they got my cell phone number (I never give it out online), but I believe that they can bypass the do not call registry if you have solicited business from them and these survey sites just might qualify. I had only ever signed up for one site, surveysavvy. I believe that they sold my information to whomever they could. Lesson learned! I unsubscribed from them immediately and will never be tempted to submit information to survey sites again.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Opinion Outpost is great! I’ve earned almost $100 from them so far this year.
I haven’t ever gotten scammed as far as I know… I hope that I don’t jinx myself now by saying that.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:10 am
I too received products after doing an online survey. I apparently check a box saying I wanted it and gave them my cc number (dumb). I cancelled both accounts, one cancelled without any problems although it took 6 weeks for the money to be deposited back into my credit card. The second was very short with me saying I had checked that I wanted the product (software wich I never received but couldn’t prove since it was delivered via email). I had to go to my bank and cancel my card and they were able to get most of my money back.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Maybe the reader could put the set of Dr. Suess books on eBay and make a few dollars off of their “mistake”. I know I would be interested in purchasing them. My daughter is 2 yrs old. My husband and I loved Dr. Suess books growing up.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
For online survey, I joined http://www.globaltestmarket.com/. After my points were enough, I redeemed it, and got my money. Now that I know I can actually make money out of this one, I am sticking to it, and not changing to other surveys, although they promised bigger better compensations at first glance.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Just wanted to add that Opinion Outpost is indeed very reputable :)
August 26th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I’d like to point out that there are two distinct types of online survey sites… those like Eversave, Coolsavings, and those like lightspeedpanel, otx, nielsen, npdor, acorn, etc…
Coolsavings, eversave, etc: are nothing more than ploys for obtaining demographic info by completing a survey followed by hundreds of “thank you offers” to get all sorts of neat stuff (you have to be careful, because a lot of them PRECHECK YES for some of the offers… this is how you end up with stuff you don’t really want a lot of the time…) (These guys are out to earn a quick buck off the click-thrus, etc generated from these)
Sites such as LightSpeedPanel, otx, nielson, acorn, etc… are legitimate market research companies actually conducting market research studies for their clients. These sites usually have a points system, or monetary compensation involved in their rewards for participating.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:23 am
I participate in Zoom Panel survey site and they are a good points system marketing research site. I have also participated in SurveySpot. They have an awful lot of surveys from other companies and I am not sure how much longer I am going to trust them to keep my email clean.
I have tried, a long time ago, the Eversave and Coolsavings. I didn’t like them then and I guess they haven’t changed much according to this article. :) I have tried a number of other sites as well, but I haven’t had much luck with them for some reason. I will stick with Zoom Panel, but I might check out that LightSpeedPanel.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Just though i would chime in here as someone who works in the industry and has a clear understanding of how these things works.
Sites like eversave and cool savings are NOT survey sites. They are lead generation companies with the goal in mind of connecting brands to consumers. Eversave does not partake in any of the aforementioned pre-checking or data sharing/selling. If you are being contacted by an advertiser, it means that you signed up for an offer. Cool Savings is a little different in how they handle things, but still a lead generation company. They do sell data, so it is very possible that by signing up for an offer, you were contacted by other advertisers. Regardless, the only way you would see something in the mail from Dr. Sues, is if you had signed up for the offer.
The other aforementioned survey sites, Zoom Panel, Survey Spot, etc. are market research groups. They in fact do sell your user data to be re marketed too and to learn from based on user preferences.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I would add cashcrate to the list GLBL, although I read on their site that they work hard to keep shady companies out of it, I just had to call a company and argue to cancel a service that I “signed up” for. I probably skimmed over something and missed the fine print. It was my fault, but it just reminded me the importance of really looking at what you are submitting…
June 27th, 2010 at 1:47 am
Hey friend Good afternoon.I am agree with your blog posting about that but i found something strange that i felt you did not know the main problem before you posting this so i want to ask :where do you know about this dude ? Best Regard admin of wayan.web.id bye