Any Success or Horror Stories With Paid Surveys?

[floslib]

I'm currently looking into paid surveys as a way to bring in some extra money. I have a job, but I don't earn as much as I'd like, so I'm looking for a way to supplement my income until I can find a better job or build up a business.

I've found a site that lists many places that offer sites to join with no membership fee, so I'm not worried about getting ripped off, since it won't cost anything to join. For anyone who wants a look, the site is here.

The sites listed at the above link that I've looked at so far all seem very professional, and payment is made either via Paypal or by mailing a check to the home of the participant, so I'm also not worried about any sites taking my banking information, since they won't have it.

In short, these sites seem legit, and I'm on the cusp of just going for it to see how it goes. I still have a slight feeling of unease about this though. I'm not sure if it's just social conditioning saying this is too good to be true, or if I'm missing risks that I should be taking into account.

Naturally, that's where you come in. Does anyone here have any success stories with paid surveys, either those listed at the link, or any others? Likewise, does anyone have any horror stories that would indicate this would be a bad idea? Are there any risks or safeguards I'm overlooking? Basically, I'm just looking for some extra info to make sure I'm making an informed choice about these sites.

[wellbeing]

File this all under hearsay, as I have no direct experience with the paid survey jobs myself but I have heard from others who have and, from what I've gathered, it is, at best, a wash (meaning you've traded more of your time to earn the $300 to $500 the sites quote than you would another--minimum wage--job to earn that same amount of money) and, at worst, an avenue for identity and financial theft.

I don't fully understand the mechanics of all this but as best as I can tell, some of the survey sites were phishing sites, so that by completing the various surveys, a friend provided (in aggregate--you know, a bit here, a bit there) enough information to allow someone to steal her identity. (Or she could have, as part of the sign-up, downloaded a keystroke logger, as the tech guy she hired to help clean stuff up afterwards wiped her computer clean.) Another friend-of-a-friend never got paid; no big loss. And someone else had their bank account accessed because the survey firm filed a bogus Paypal claim against him. Eventually, he got the money (all? some?) back but after many months of hassle and quite a few bounced check fees.

You mention that the sites listed seem legit but the site you linked to has enough warning signs for me (no About Us information, no physcial address, FAQ tells you that you will have to provide personal information for the surveys, etc.) to deem it not legit. (YMMV, of course)

The tried-and-true wisdom that you quoted in your original post ("If it looks to good to be true, it probably is") seems to be applicable--at least in my friends' experience. The best advice I can offer, if you do decide to explore this, is to make sure your finances and identity are completely sealed off from these firms.

Good luck!

[Brutha]

I really don't think that there is a good business model that includes paying people a lot of money for filling out suryes.

If you pay people for doing suryes the data you will get won't be representative for the general population but for the kind of people who want to make money with survies with often aren't the target group.

Apart from that it's always possible to get someone for minimum wage to do survies if those people are the target group.