Recently I had joined another site that seemed to be trying the social media angle (er... right, cuz a-n-g-e-l =
). It was supposed to be a social network type of site similar to Facebook or MySpace where you could meet others with similar interests in social groups; blog you own ideas; post pics, music, videos you found interesting; take polls; etc. The neat thing about them was that they'd pay you for everything that you did. Visit a new site, get a point. Post a blog, get a point. etc. And every 2000 points equaled a dollar; rack up 50K points ($25) and you could cash out. But what made this so great was that there was a 2-step process that you could do to earn 1000 points (50 cents) each day: 1) View a paid e-mail advertisement and 2) post a comment on the admin's daily blog. Pretty good money for a few minutes of work each day.
But then they added a new requirement (which just went into effect on Monday)... To get the 50-cents, you now had to also complete "a simple 3-minute survey".
As soon as I heard that, my scam-dar started going off. If any of you have tried the daily surveys on FC, you'll know that to qualify and complete any survey will likely take more than 3 minutes (unless you are very luck and qualify for a survey right off the bat, and its just a quick survey to finish). Barring that that was what they were talking about, I know of many other marketing scams that claim they are "surveys" although in reality it is just some marketing ploy to get you to release private information or worse... Some of these so-called "surveys" want you to answer a simple question (Who is hotter? Brad Pitt or Brad Paisley) and then you have to fill in your e-mail, phone number, and home address (to be notified of winning a prize, and oh BTW you may get contacted by web-site "affiliates"). Others are more devious where you have to use a cell phone to answer the survey
and in the small type it states that by sending in your response, you agree to join the Survey Alliance Club in which they will "conveniently" charge you a $10 $9.99 monthly membership fee directly to your phone bill. Well yesterday when I went to get my daily 50-cents, I found out that my worst fears had come true for that site. It wasn't a legit survey that you needed to complete. Rather it was one of those more nefarious (er... right, cuz "No fairy is nefarious"; thanks
Up Your Score) "survey" scams. For my "survey" I had the choice of a) downloading and installing some game (can we say Trojan here?) b) Signing up for car insurance quotes (I might do that if I didn't mind being bugged for the next month) c) Answering a simple survey from your cell phone (uh-huh... no, I don't want to join the Survey Alliance Club) d) Receive a free decorative plate (plus $3 Shipping and handling, and probably also joining some plate-of-the-month club to boot) or e) Join Opinion Outpost for free and complete a simple survey (which is the only one I'd consider doing, if I hadn't already joined them. Seriously, if any of you are not members of that survey site, you may want to consider joining... And I'm pretty sure that you can sign-up as one of the FC offers, so that's just double-bonus!).
Needless to say, I never did complete that requirement to receive my 50-cents. Even though I just recently joined that site, and you can still earn points by treating it like a regular social media site, I think I'd rather spend my time on FC earning 10-cents a day posting in their forums. C'ya $ideTick
(ed off about the new requirement)!
True, these postings don't count as much money, but I don't have to jump through any hoops. And I have much more trust in the FC admin not to jerk us around.
FC IS THE BEST