We, the consumers, all have opinions and preferences. Our opinions and preferences dictate almost much everything we purchase. What we buy, where we buy it, how we buy it, how much we buy.... all these variables are of the utmost concern to the people making the things we're buying.

In order to stay ahead of the competition, companies that make the products we buy, pay market research companies to figure out the "who, what, where, when, and how much" for them. Knowing your customers and what they like and want and are willing to spend their money on, is the edge every company wants. It's often called the "sixth sense of business". Consumer opinions and preferences matter so much to them, oftentimes they are more than willing to pay for that information. Compared to the cost of a failed product line, paying the target audience for their opinion before-hand only makes sense.

In order to benefit from all of this, you simply need to know who wants to pay you and how to tell them you're available.

The scam claims? First off, don't forget, the internet is the best tool available to indiscriminately tarnish anyone's reputation. Not trying to excuse anything here, but let's get some perspective on scams, and what a scam is and what a scam isn't.

So, a purposeful and malicious effort to defraud you, or not getting exactly what you paid for, or what you were promised in exchange for the agreed upon commitment, is a scam. Getting caught in a legitimate system foul-up or not reading the "terms" carefully enough, is not a scam. Just because someone casually labels online surveys as scams, and then proceeds to tell you about the "super-awesome secret" they've discovered to "beat the system" and "make crazy money", does NOT make their claim legitimate.

Some of the market research companies, or paid surveys companies may have or had some legitimate complaints registered against them. We're not vouching for or pointing fingers at anybody here. Maybe they were sneaky-snakes about something, maybe someone on their staff lost something, dropped the ball on processing, who knows. Factor in the readiness and willingness of the general public to sue-first and ask questions later, there's a large gray area from what we can tell.

Then there are the scam claims that simply boil down to someone not getting what they thought they were supposed to and their going to make someone pay for their own lack of due diligence. Sometimes it's a matter of someone not reading that company's policies regarding payouts, and decides they're going to post complaints because they didn't quite understand what they were signing up for. Other times it's a legitimate mix-up, and someone's account gets temporarily suspended, and if it doesn't get rectified in a timely manner, negative posts may stay published long after the conflict is resolved. But who goes back and revises their negative posts?

Some of the companies listed are "paid per offer" sites, where you have to "subscribe" or try an offer, complete a survey that records your experience, and then you are paid. Sometimes you'll need a credit card to secure the product, which some people find very offensive, and have carelessly labeled them "scams." You need a credit card to secure just about anything anymore, like rental cars, hotel rooms, etc, so why this should be any different is ludicrous. Would you just give a whole bunch of people you didn't know something of value for free, then hope they were all honest enough to return it? No, you wouldn't. Asking for a security deposit on something is not a novel idea, and does not qualify as a scam. If you're an organized, motivated, and accountable person, pay per offer deals can actually be very lucrative. It's up to you to know what you're signing up for, so read all the fine print of every offer. Pay close attention to "acquisition fees" as most are refundable, but some are not.

Some of the companies listed aren't "market research" organizations, or the company doing the actual research. They are "brokers" for market researchers. A totally legitimate business in and of itself. They are "middlemen", and are not the people signing your paycheck, so to speak. Again, this does not constitute a "scam". Their potential benefit to you is, depending on how much background or profile information you give them, you may be "pre-screened" for quite a few other market research firms. This saves you a bunch of time as far as registration processes go, and you'll see surveys from some of the major survey distributors listed elsewhere on our directory. If after you sign-up with one and all you get is offers from their partner sites and never a survey, then it's time to take some action.

Check the Federal Trade Commission, Better Business Bureau, site advisor, rip off report, or SCAM.com. Be careful about typing a name and "scam" into a search engine, it's not fool-proof. You may find some negative reviews for certain survey companies on various other sites as well. If you feel like you have been slighted in any way, you should take action with the appropriate agencies. Do your own research and go with your instincts. If it sounds like people have legitimate complaints, then common sense dictates to steer clear until those issues are resolved.