With many people on the lookout to make some extra cash, filling out surveys can be a fun way to do it. Unfortunately scammers have honed in on paid survey panel sites, and use surveys to steal personal and financial information from their victims.

The scamming has become so rife that there are almost as many scam sites as there are legitimate ones. There are hundreds of scams on the internet every day. Hundreds of people fall for the scams, which are very well presented by the scammers.

They are able to steal the colors and logos of legitimate organizations, and create links which look like they lead to genuine websites. The inexperienced folk, just wanting to make some spare cash, are duped into parting with personal information by the dazzling offers the scammers make.

The fraudsters use the stolen personal details in various ways, from selling your details to a third party who will use it for nefarious purposes, to using your bank details to obtain false credit cards.

Negotiating the minefield of survey scams and coming out with your identity intact, is certainly no mean feat.

How to Prevent Fraudsters from Stealing Your Identity?

To keep your identity safe, you need to know the red flags which may indicate a scam. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) have recommended the following ways of spotting an e-mail survey scam.

• A tactic commonly used by fraudsters is to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails with offers of scam survey invitations. Do not click on the links of any unsolicited e-mails, even if the logos look legitimate.
• They usually ask a payment for signing up, and offer a phenomenal amount of money for you to complete the surveys. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Unfortunately, many people succumb to the scam in pursuit of money, and that is why the scammers keep doing this. No legitimate survey panel will ask you to pay a fee to join.
• They often use high-pressure tactics to get you to sign up quickly. Some have a web page filled with glowing testimonials which are all fake.
• Genuine survey panels only ask for names, sometimes details, and e-mail addresses. Scammers usually ask for credit card numbers, bank details, and even Paypal passwords. Don’t part with anything of that nature. Your identity and everything else will be gone in a flash.
• Because many of the scammers are foreign, the e-mail communications are often very bad, containing typo errors, awkward e-mail construction, and very poor grammar. This is a dead giveaway of a scam.
• They often require a high minimum payout limit, which in spite of the fantastic payment amounts offered to complete surveys, in real time you will not be able to reach. You will just go on filling out surveys until no more invites arrive, and the cash you think you have earned never materializes.
• Another red flag is that scammers always try to disguise their e-mail addresses by making the mail seem to come from a legitimate source. The sender e-mail does not match the brand or organization punted, so be on the lookout for mails that do not match the brand used. The links as well, will take you somewhere unrelated to the brand. Keep safe and don’t click.
• Most reputable survey panels have a privacy policy in place to protect your personal information, which you can check before signing up. Scam sites never have any privacy policies, and your personal details are generally sold to third parties who overwhelm you with spam mail for everything under the sun.

Remember that if someone offers you $150 to do a 15 minute survey, it will definitely be scam, and a scheme to get hold of your personal details to use in a fraudulent activity.

Survey panels never offer that kind of money, especially for a short survey – and nor do businesses and organizations send out unsolicited e-mails like that.

Always Be on The Alert

When surfing the net for places where you can make extra cash, always be wary as there are literally thousands of scammers out there waiting to take advantage of innocent folk.

If something doesn’t look right, ignore it, and if you know it is a scam – you can report it to the BBB. You can also request them to investigate a survey panel which looks promising, but which you might have reservations about joining.

They are a non-profit organization there for the protection of both businesses and consumers.

Conclusion

Perhaps the most effective way to prevent falling for a scam and putting your identity at risk of being stolen, is to thoroughly examine all unsolicited e-mails that arrive in your inbox. It is possible that a few may be genuine, but unless you know for sure, don’t respond and don’t click on any links.

You can make extra money doing surveys, but it will never be enough to make you rich, or allow you to give up your day job. It can also be a lot of fun to work from home and actually earn some cash or rewards for participating in genuine surveys.

But if you are not vigilant enough and fall prey to fraudsters, what started out as fun, may end up in a nightmare of stolen personal information.