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Scammers use phony surveys to phish for personal information or promote spammy products. Here’s how to tell a fake survey from the real thing.
- Truth Behind Facebook Quizzes
How the scam works: A fun quiz pops up on your Facebook feed...
- Truth Behind Facebook Quizzes
Oct 4, 2022 · Phony paid surveys are a common way for scammers to acquire personal information and steal people’s identities. Here’s how to spot them. Scammers offer discounts or money to get people to fill out fake surveys in order to phish for personal information to steal identities.
- Costco text or letter survey scams. Costco survey scams offer between $50 and $500 in exchange for consumer input. Scammers share fake surveys via social media posts, texts, WhatsApp messages, emails, and even physical mail.
- Fake Walmart refund survey. In a recent scam, fraudsters create fake Facebook profiles to publicize an alleged Walmart refund. These posts claim that shoppers who made a Walmart purchase in 2022 are entitled to $500 due to a lawsuit [*].
- Lowe’s scam survey. Lately, scammers have posed as the Lowe’s marketing team, offering a “free” Kobalt tool set to people who fill out a 30-second questionnaire.
- Post-vaccine survey scams. In February 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) warned the public about new telemarketing, SMS, social media, and in-person fraud schemes related to coronavirus [*].
- The Survey Promises Big Bucks
- Unsolicited Survey Invitations
- There’S No Company Name
- Poor Website Design and Functionality
- Unsecured Websites
- You Can’T Find Contact Information Or An “About” Page
- The Domain Is New
- The Site Has No Privacy Policy
- The Company Uses A Free E-Mail Account
- The Survey Asks For Private Personal Information
If an ad offers to pay $250 for completing a survey that takes 15 minutes, hold up before you start answering questions. Marketing companies typically pay people anywhere from $50 to $300 for in-person product and social issues focus groups that last a couple of hours or more. Even legitimate online surveystypically pay less than $10 an hour, says ...
Be cautious of unsolicited survey invitations via email or pop-up ads. Legitimate survey opportunities usually come through reputable survey platforms or are opt-in based on your profile information. Unsolicited invitations may lead to fraudulent surveys or attempts to gather your personal information.
If a marketing or survey company is legitimate with a good reputation, you will likely find its name on the ad or survey. At the same time, a company name is still no guarantee of legitimacy. However, when the ad shows no name at all, that’s a huge red flag that the survey could be a scam. Look up the company’s BBB rating, if one exists. Type the c...
Scam survey websites often have low-quality designs, contain spelling or grammatical errors, and have broken links. Legitimate survey companies invest in professional website design and ensure a smooth user experience.
Always check if the survey website is secure by looking for the padlock icon in the browser address bar. Secure websites have “https://” at the beginning of the URL, indicating that your data is encrypted and protected.
Legitimate companies offer a means of contact beyond a generic e-mail address. If there is no “about” page with the company’s history, address, phone number and other information you can easily verify, there may be a shady reason for that omission. Just as bad as no “about” page is one that tells only how great the company is and how much money you...
If the paid survey company’s domain name was created within the last year or just a few months ago, that doesn’t mean the survey is a scam, but it should give you reason to investigate further. That’s because scammers like to move around and may change domain names when their scamming ways catch up to them. You can find out who owns a domain with a...
When you complete a pre-screening form asking for your e-mail, phone number, address, shopping habits, age, number in household and other pertinent information and never hear back, that doesn’t mean those facts went unnoticed. Scammers collect this information and sell it to marketing companies that bombard you with phone calls, e-mails or spam. Al...
Not every company with a Gmail address is bad news. At the same time, a survey or marketing company without its name in the e-mail address or on the survey can’t be checked out for legitimacy. That’s the way scammers like it, so stick with paid surveys with real companies you can look up on the BBB site.
It’s one thing to ask your age range and whether you use a bank or a credit union. However, when survey questions delve into your bank and credit card company names, types of bank accounts or account numbers, those inquiries are flapping red flags. Supplying financial accounts information, your social security number, birth date, health insurance I...
Dec 21, 2022 · If you see an ad for a survey site that offers you surveys that earn you money, but then asks you to pay them for the privilege, there’s a good chance that the “survey site” is actually a scam. The Reward for Survey Completion is Too Good to Be True.
Oct 12, 2022 · Scammers also use surveys to “cram” a victim’s phone bill with a phony charge, a practice that was more common a decade ago. Cramming refers to placing a charge on a consumer's phone bill without...
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Dec 14, 2022 · In this guide, you’ll discover our top tips for avoiding paid survey scams and how to find truly legitimate paid survey websites. If you can spot the telltale signs of a paid survey scam, avoiding these types of scams is easy. Below, you’ll discover 5 of the most obvious signs of a paid survey scam. 1. A too-good-to-be true reward.
