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You may assume that it is easy to spot a survey scam but in reality, it is not, as a matter of fact, it can be quite tricky. Some of you can notice and tell immediately whether if it is a real survey company or not and some of you take lots of time distinguishing which is which or which is not.

The following are tips and tricks to spot and avoid survey scam:

• If an offer seems too good to be true, then most probably it is survey scam! Experienced survey takers can make a few hundred dollars per week, but those that are new to surveys should not expect to earn thousand of dollars a day or a hundred thousand dollars a year. It’s just not going to happen. If a company tells you up front that you will make a huge amount of money in just a short period of time, you can bet they are trying to sell you something. Keep your wallet closed, and get off of their website as soon as possible!

• If a company is asking for personal information that is out of the norm, then they may be planning to make you their next poor victim of identity theft. Yes it’s okay to tell to those companies how old your kids are, but never your credit card numbers, bank account numbers, or any other numbers that could lead to a stolen identity.

• If a company doesn’t state their privacy policy right up front, then they probably don’t have one. Make sure a company listed that they do not share your information with third parties unless you want the world knowing your phone number and yearly income (which are we all know that it is a no-no). Better to be safe than sorry. Don’t forget to look for a way to opt out of having your information shared.

• If a survey company asks you to download a program onto your computer I highly advise against it. The survey company may then be able to track every single click you make on your computer, giving you absolutely no privacy. Do you think that it is their business what sites you visit? For how long? What you buy? A big NO, it’s not. Not just that, if you download a program from an untrustworthy site it could also lead to a computer virus. Do not download anything unless you know exactly what it is for and are absolutely certain you want it. GPT sites may ask you to download their toolbar, and pay you for each search you complete. This is completely up to you if you do so or not. As always, read what other people have said about their toolbar before you actually download it.

• If a company just requires your name and email address to sign up, it is most likely a survey scam. Real survey companies need more information about you so they can place you in those demographic groups. If a site looks simple, a scammer probably slapped it together just to get people to enter their email address. Each email address entered will then get sold off to hundreds of companies who send out spam emails.

• If a company do not lists their contact information such as phone number, address, or email address to contact them, there might be a secret scary reason why. Reputable companies should be proud to give out their contact info, and welcome questions or comments. Scammers that do not want to get caught will not give you a way to contact them. If a survey company does not have contact information on their website, skip over them and move onto the next.