HCD Surveys - Scam Warning

HCD Surveys (HCD Research) has sent an email out to its survey panel members warning them of a potential scam alert. If you are a member of read below for more information:

Dear Panel Member,

Our company name, logo and other information was used by an unknown entity to unlawfully send out  fraudulent checks in an attempt to scam people out of their hard-earned money. These checks were not sent by HCD Research, and have nothing to do with HCD Research in any way. They were mailed by someone or some organization that used our identity for fraudulent purposes. However, they attempt to fool people into thinking the checks are from us. The checks are NOT from HCD Research, and have no monetary value.

These checks are sent from a variety of locations around the country, and are sometimes accompanied by an email that is made to look like it’s coming from us. We can assure you, they are not. They sometimes mention “mystery shopping” and “customer feedback” as part of the deception. They also ask the recipient to deposit the check into their personal account and wire money through a money transfer service such as Western Union to a random account number. However, the check is fraudulent, and will ultimately bounce even if it is accepted by a bank for deposit or for cash. You will most likely, be held responsible for any money from a fraudulent check that you spend, withdraw or receive in cash from a bank or check cashing service. Therefore, any money that you transfer by wire will be your responsibility.

HCD Research has never run mystery shopper programs, and does not perform any type of check studies in this fashion in which a check is sent prior to your providing research feedback.

This type of scam is also being run using names from other market research companies.  Please be wary of  any check from a market research or research panel company that comes to you unsolicited and in a very high dollar amount.

If you believe you have received a fraudulent check from HCD Research, please DO NOT attempt to cash it under any circumstances.

Finally, please be aware that we at HCD Research are doing everything in our power to stop the perpetration and furtherance of this scam. If you have cashed the check, please contact your bank and your local law enforcement.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at support@hcdi.net.

Thank you in advance for your help and cooperation.

Regards,
The Staff of HCD Research.

HCD Surveys Scam Alert

As I visited HCD Surveys website I immediately noticed the yellow bulletin on the front of the homepage. There has inevitably been fake checks circulating claiming the are from HCD Surveys. Please read the following message for more info:

HCD Research, Inc. (HCD) has been made aware that an unidentified third party has been mailing out false checks with offers requesting participation in surveys, secret shopper, mystery shopper, or investigative shopper opportunities that require you to submit personal information in order to win a cash prize. These checks and requests are not real and are not from HCD. For your own protection, do NOT give away any personal information as it relates to this fraud.

We take matters such as this very seriously and are investigating the situation. If you are a recipient of this information, please contact us online or fax the letter to us at 908-788-7179. For more information, please click here.

Is BigSpot Legit?

While I was browsing through a forum I saw a question asking if BigSpot was a legit survey site. I had never heard of this site - I know and am a member of a lot of survey sites too. I then browsed more and found that people were seeing a commercial about them on TV. As soon as I heard that, I immediately thought its probably some type of scheme. I went to their website which is hosted by Survey Payoff, that name seemed familiar. I then realized I had seen the Survey Payoff logo on offer landing pages among other imitator survey sites. This told me that they were not very trustworthy - at least in my book.

I decided to sign up for BigSpot, of course using one of my "spam" email addresses just for this purpose. I filled out the form that is presented on the first page then clicked "click to join". They then informed me that based on my demographics I had "privately qualified"(what does that even mean?)for the Ipsos i-Say and that I would just have to check the box in order to join. Why how nice of them ..... to bad I am already a member. I was also assured that I would still have complete access to the database after joining. I was expecting them to tell me to check my email to activate my account, but this was not the case.

Click To See Screen Shot

Now here comes the fun part, they are so generous that before I get a chance to see this "database" I can choose some offers that may interest me. There are a couple survey sites listed as well as dieting and cheap travel offers. Well good thing I'm not on a diet or traveling anytime soon or I might have just check "yes" to those offers. This is the part where the privacy of your information comes into play, if you click "yes" to any of those offers you are giving them permission to contact you. Well, if you want more info on those offers then you probably won't mind, but how loose are their privacy policies?

Click To See Screen Shot

After clicking "Submit & Continue!" you are taken to the page below. At this point your probably thinking they are loading your demographics to match you up with surveys, at least that's what it seems. It does say "survey database" not "survey site database".

Click To See Screen Shot

Finally the page gets redirected to this great "survey database" .... oh wait its actually a "survey site database". When I saw the database of survey sites, the first thing I thought was "that's all?". Seriously, they only list a measly 12 survey sites, correction 11 survey sites "Quality Survey Panel" is nothing but the Quality Health website where you get free samples by basically completing offers. All the links lead to the correct sites except for "African American Panel" which actually leads to Mindfield Online. The other 10 survey sites they list are:

SurveySpot
Lightspeed Research Panel
GlobalTestMarket
Valued Opinions Panel
My Survey Panel
i-Say Survey Panel
American Consumer Panel
E-Poll Research Panel
eSearch Survey Panel
SurveySavvy Panel

That's it, they ask you to bookmark the page and share it with others via Myspace and Facebook. Seems like they want their "members" to do the advertising for them.

Click To See Screen Shot

The Gist of BigSpot: BigSpot is just another affiliate marketing site looking to make an extra buck from unsuspecting viewers. I'm not saying that affiliate marketing is bad, it can actually be a good thing. What I am concerned about is that they are somewhat misleading to the general viewers of their website. Also throwing in offers during the registration process just bothers me, the site is making you go through unnecessary tasks in order to join. A legitimate survey site wouldn't make you jump through hoops, they may want you to complete profile surveys but this is to your benefit. BigSpot's database is sad to say the least, if I was going to spend money advertising on TV I would be sure to add a lot more survey sites to the list as well as have the links send my members to the correct sites.

You will gain nothing from joining BigSpot, maybe extra unwanted emails but that's about it. You do not need to sign up with them in order to find survey sites that are available to you. There are free directories out there that will provide you with much more information then BigSpot's database. I know for a fact I even have more survey sites listed on my blog then they do, and thats pretty pathetic. If you notice on the main page they state:

"If you have access to the Internet and live in the United States or Canada, you can be an online survey taker."

What about people that live outside of the United States and Canada? What about the rest of the world that wants to voice their opinion? Well, I guess International members just don't bring in enough income for them to list sites that would allow them to join and make some extra money. I am pretty sure that is exactly why they state what they do, they only get paid when people from those countries join the panels they list. Maybe I am being a little harsh, but I believe if you are going to list survey sites why limit them to people of certain residency when there are survey panels where international members can share their opinions and get paid for it.

Consumer Beat & Winning Surveys - Warning

To the left you will see an example of The Consumer Beats surveys. They seem like they would be worth your opinion, I mean a chance to win $50,000 is an okay bargain for one question and of course personal information..... isn't it? Well I think it would be if that personal information was known only by Consumer Beat but that is not the case hear. It states in their Privacy Policy the following:

The Controls You Have On The Information You Share

If you do not want us to share contact, postal, e-mail address and demographic information with third party marketers, we can add your name to our "do-not-share" list. Please click here to send us a request to be added to this list In addition, you may request to be unsubscribed from our list at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link contained within the e-mail message delivered by TheConsumerBeat.com, contacting us via e-mail at Unsubscribe@TheConsumerBeat.com or writing to us at TheConsumerBeat.com, 4509 South 143rd Street, Suite 9, Omaha, NE 68137 with a request to be removed. Unsubscription requests are processed within 72 hours but because of time lags due to scheduling, you may receive one or two additional e-mail messages that are already "in the pipeline." To remove yourself from third-party mailing lists, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided or contact the third-party directly with your request for removal.

Third Party Services

From time-to-time, we may partner with other parties to provide specific services. It may be necessary to share names, or other contact information with a third party(ies) to provide these services. These parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.

Sale, Merger or Reorganization

TheConsumerBeat.com may transfer, sell or assign information concerning your use of this Site, including without limitation, personally identifiable information that you provide and other information concerning your use of the Site, to third parties, as a result of a sale, merger, consolidation, changing control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization or liquidation of TheConsumerBeat.com.

Obviously they are not very strict on their third party sharing. I know not everyone that enters into these sweepstakes "surveys" read the Privacy Policies because they assume since its a survey company that is hosting this survey, but this is not true. It has been found that the parent company of Consumer Beat collects and sells email addresses. Also if you check out Winning Surveys Privacy Policy its exactly like the Privacy Policy">Consumer Beat's Privacy Policy, word for word and their layouts are very similar as well. I would not trust either Consumer Beat or Winning Surveys. I remember when I was a newbie and did their surveys, the spam came almost immediately, not only tons of "surveys" from their companies but advertisements for other companies that I didn't even sign up for. I ended up having to get a whole new email address because no matter how many times I unsubscribed from their companies as well as the third party companies they sold my email address to, I still got tons of spam! If you want to still do their "surveys", which I personally think are a waste of time, you should start a whole separate email address for them and other companies like them.

Here is a list of the companies that are "survey imitators" and/or sell email address:

• Brand Survey Panel
• Consumer Expression
• Consumer Promotion Center
• Consumer Beat
• My Elite Rewards
• My Insider Deals
• My Select Gifts
• Net Panel
• Opinion Direct
• Rewards Gateway
• Savings List
• Survey Networks
• Winning Surveys

If you are a member of a Gpt site like Treasure Trooper or SwatCash and complete offers you will run into these companies, I would just suggest using a separate email address - Don't give out your home phone number or telemarketers will most likely be calling you everyday...... been there done that. You can get a free voicemail/phone number, more info about that here.

Panada Research - Warning!

Panda Research is NOT a survey site, you would think by the name having research in it they would be. Well they have fouled a lot of people of thinking that. Novice survey takers may assume that they are a legit survey site because of the way Panda Research throws around the words "surveys" and "research". If you look in the Faq section they use surveys in a couple questions but then in another question the use offers, so which is it? Well I guess they like to call them surveys since it sounds better and it implies market research, but these "surveys" really are offers. I personally believe they do this to make their business look more appealing, but all it does is make them look illegitimate. There are sites out their that are like Panda Research but they advertise themselves as what they are - an "Offers" site or a "Paid to Sign-up" site. They may tell you that you can test products and you can complete daily surveys, but they actually have daily surveys and regular offers. When companies try to take on a clashed identity like Panda Research it just rubs me the wrong way, they are deliberately misleading you. I joined Panda Research because their were quiet a few people asking about them, I wasn't a member then so I couldn't correctly tell them what Panda Research is and what they are not. From the screen shot we know what they aren't - a survey site. I also noticed that you had to reach a ridiculous amount in order to receive payment! The minimum you have to earn to cash out is $100! Sounds familiar huh? Just like SurveyTeam, Panda Research has the $100 minimum payment. It's funny how they never state that you will actually have to spend money in order to make the minimum amount in a reasonable amount of time. I'm sure you can make $200 with just the "free offers" but it will take you some time, probably around 4 months since you can't complete the same offer twice. When you Google "Panda Research Scam" a lot of stuff comes up, reviews, complaints, experiences, etc. With all the complaints they get its no wonder they have a "Revised Privacy Policy"! You can see reviews about Panda Research here, here, here and here. I would advise anyone who has joined the site to be cautious and people who haven't joined to stay clear of it.

There are much better "offer" sites out there. If you are wanting to try a great one out I would recommend Treasure Trooper simply because I have been a member for over 3 years now and have been paid on-time every time I requested a payment. I don't participated in offer sites much anymore but with Treasure Trooper I have made over $235 from offers and their daily surveys. I kinda got sidetracked with surveys and school so I haven't been active since the beginning of last year.

Beware of SurveyTeam

Beware of SurveyTeam, they are NOT a survey site! When you first see their site name "SurveyTeam" you would automatically think that they are a survey site that sends you surveys to participate in, but this is not the true at all. They have offers not surveys, they like to call them surveys but they are just sponsor offers. If you aren't familiar with offers let me give you a small overview of what they are. Offers are hosted by companies that make themselves appear like they want your opinion but they really want your email address. For example you see those ads for $500 gift card to Old Navy or Victoria Secret and they want your "opinion" which store is the better one, all they really want is your email address so they can send you more offers like these to your email. These companies say you can get the $500 gift card but of course you have to jump through hoops which they call "surveys" but they are really just other offers, I know sounds confusing.... thats exactly what they are trying to do to the people that participate. SurveyTeam gets paid every time you enter your email address since they just provided another lead for that company to spam. They also have trials offers that you can complete, but you have to make sure you cancel or you get can get charged more money than you initially thought. I emailed them about their "surveys" being offers and of course they totally ignored my initial question, but what do you expect. I think I will email them again and include that their name is misleading and confusing. Will this do anything? No, probably not but I like to complain, lol. Also when I went to my account page I noticed that they stated the minimum payout was at $100! Even if they do pay straight to your PayPal account that's still pretty damn high if you ask me. Other offer sites have a lower minimum payment than that! That is the other reason you should beware of SurveyTeam, with such a high minimum payment it would take you a while to get there and they could then say you did offers fraudulently or you had multiple accounts and you won't get paid. I have heard other sites like them that do that even when the member is an honest one. Also if you become an inactive member for three months you lose all of your earnings. You loose money, time and effort, and sometimes even trustworthiness to site similar to the one that scammed you. If you do join
SurveyTeam I would be cautious. There have been numerous reports of people being scammed by them Here