It is undoubtedly true, that the one area of the GPT (get paid to) online market place, which seems to be most vulnerable to scammers is that of online surveys.

The scams generally work like this: they offer you "magnificent income potential", "more money than you’ve ever earned before", "the chance to give up your boring day-time job" and so on, with equally outrageous claims. They state eg: "for just $29.95" they will provide you with directories of companies wanting your opinions, with nothing more to pay.

What they neglect to tell you is that the fee they charge is non-refundable, and the charge is often per directory, so the "nothing more to pay" only applied to the one directory they sent. You could end up paying a small fortune, also often to find that the directories are out of date.

So, how to find a good, members, fee paying, paid survey site, and one which will not fleece you? One method that my research found to be very useful was to find one or two of the excellent GPT website online review sites, and to see if:

• they have actually checked out if the site offers money back guarantees

• checked that the money back guarantees are actually given (tried it out)

• they have spoken to a human voice at a given telephone number (even if they had to go through an email first)

• they assessed the response to the reviewers enquiry, ie were they hostile or did they welcome the questioning as an opportunity to show their honesty.

All of the affiliates relating to online surveys that I have joined have been checked out by Top Site Reviews, which I personally confirmed direct with the owner of that site.

I would suggest that anyone interested in joining an online survey program checks out the points I mention above, as a minimum. In addition, I would counsel against the free-to-join programs, as a bit of a waste of time. I say this not only because they will pay you less (typically $10 or less), but mainly because they cannot possibly have the same resources as the subscription driven members sites. The resources enable directories to be maintained that are as up to date as possible, as it is a labor intensive activity.

Using one or other of the top three paid survey sites, you can get a pretty good, regular income, although I doubt you’ll get rich, not even slowly. Don’t be put off by the scams you will hear about, especially through online ezines, such as this one. It is more than possible to find good sites, and to make a decent living, even if it is extra-income, over and above that from your regular job.