When brands want to find out what consumers think about their product and services, they turn to market research companies. Market research companies are the ones actually administering the surveys on behalf of the corporations looking for data/feedback. Think of online surveys as a type of focus group, except in this case, everything is done online.
I signed up for InBox Dollars, which led to a rabbit hole of sweepstakes and surveys, all of which, had the same 30 questions repeated 2-3 times in a single survey, punctuated by attempts at selling magazine subscriptions. One survey had a couple of telling questions. “Do you believe Trump is the best President America has ever had?” “Do you believe Hillary Clinton should be convicted of a crime?” and “Is Fox your main source of news?” I started getting an ungodly amount of spam emails and I can’t even count the number of spam calls, that are now growing at a rate of about 18 per day. I can’t block them fast enough, though one number has called 21 times in the past 3 days. 11 of those tries were yesterday. Today they only called 5 times… I just started mass spam dumping from my inbox. I don’t even care what’s in the message. If it’s not something I know. DELETE DELETE DELETE! I received a Netspend card in the mail today. Wasn’t able to activate it though.
IOCS is a not-for-profit research organization that conducts studies and experiments on shopping-related behavior – things like how we, as consumers, evaluate products, how we make the buying decisions, etc. Although the focus is mostly on shopping related behavior, some of their experiments and studies include broader areas of marketing, psychology, and economics.
InboxDollars is one of the worst programs. Unlike others, they have a very short “6-months of inactivity and we’ll close your account and keep your money” term. Plus, you earn next to nothing. I too stopped getting paid emails and tried to unsuccessfully qualify for surveys. As such, I mostly did the big-ticket things, like signing up for money back on donations to charities. I accrued $98 and log in monthly to avoid the “inactivity” thing. But, guess what? They just closed my account for not completing anything in six months. They don’t even hold up their own definition of “activity”. So, user beware–withdraw when you can, even though UNLIKE the other programs, they charge a 3% fee on what you’ve earned. Sketchy, sketchy, sketchy.
This is a service owned and operated by a Kenyan company known as Simba Survey. The company works with local and international businesses, government agencies, research institutions, NGOs and universities to create and deploy flexible and scalable mobile surveys. The survey rates can move from a minimum of Ksh. 50 upwards. There are two types of surveys one can take; the cash reward surveys and the draw entry surveys. Members can withdraw their money directly via MPESA.
In recent years, taking surveys online has become a very popular way to make a quick and honest buck and for some, it has even turned into a regular source of income. With InboxDollars, you can start taking surveys for real cash instead of points. You can complete as many surveys as you want for more dollars, but note that you may not qualify for all the surveys available. However, you will have access to surveys matched for you ( based on the info you provide when you sign up).
Gold members are given the option to either select the cards without creating an account or create an account for additional benefits. Account holders with a Tango card can cash out for significantly higher merchant amounts and they can also choose to send their earnings via email to family and friends as gifts/ donations. There is no additional fee for eCards. Prepaid Visa cash cards are processed by Swift.
Not a “scam” in the sense of the word, but really not a way to earn any type of money. If you can find the companies that do the surveys and do them on your own with out sites like this you will make a substantially bigger amount of money. The “scam” is they take 90% (if not more, to be honest probably 99%) of the survey payout for themselves. Its the same for the “offers”, they will take the majority of the offer from the company, and give you a small percentage, And if that was not enough, they also take a percentage of your payout. This should be illegal as it is criminal to do this to people.