How to Avoid Survey Scams
Somehow our free Breathe Now samples have been listed as prizes on several scam sites and surveys redirecting customers to our products.
First, let us be clear! We are NOT associated with ANY of these survey sites! We have been doing everything we can to get our product taken off including potential legal action. Our product was added without our permission and is being misrepresented as 100% FREE. If you were brought to our page via one of these scam sites we apologize.
Our Breathe Now product is excellent and really works! We offer a sample size so you do not have to commit to a buying full bottle to give it a try. For a brief time we were offer to pay for shipping and handling on the samples. However, the response was overwhelming and after sending out over 40,000 samples we just could not afford to keep paying for this.
We want you and your information to be safe. In the future, here are some ways you can protect yourself from scam websites:
Watch out for red flags.
Surveys that require you to pay to play are dangerous. At best, they will just pay you a dollar back for completing thousands of questions in hopes that you will get tired and give up, but many times they will just take your money and run. Worst of all, if you have given them any financial information, they can take that and charge you as much money as they want.
If you receive emails that you have not signed up for inviting you to complete surveys in return for money or prizes, this could be a way for scammers to steal your identity. Embedded in the link to take you to the survey is malware – software that will be installed on your computer to steal your personal information in order to steal your identity. They may also ask you for this information in the survey in order to steal your identity.
Always check for a privacy policy. This is very important! All legitimate survey companies will have a privacy policy to clearly state their use of information they receive from you. If you do not see a privacy policy, assume the site is a scam. Also, clever scammers will show a “link” for the privacy policy. Don’t just look for a link, but make sure it is a valid link. Click this link and read the privacy policy. The same goes for “about” pages and other links. Legitimate companies do not try to hide their identities. Check all the links and make sure they actually lead somewhere other than to the “Sign up” page. Many scam sites will also pretend to be from big companies like Apple or Amazon. If this is the case, be sure to check the validity of the website first.
Be aware of outlandish prize promises as well. Legitimate companies are not likely to give you outlandish rewards like a free iPhone X, $200 Amazon gift card, etc. just for filling out a survey. This is a scammers way of luring in people with outlandish promises to gather personal information, credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, financial information, etc. Remember, even if you aren’t filling out this information, they may be installing malware to steal this information.
Protect yourself.
With any survey, be sure to investigate before filling out any information, including your email address. Be sure to perform internet searches to make sure this site is not a scam. Sites such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB), an organization that collects complaints and reviews of all types of businesses in order to maintain consumer confidence. You can search the website or survey in question on the BBB website: https://www.bbb.org/search/.
Other sites such as https://www.surveypolice.com, http://www.ripoffreport.com/ and http://www.scamdetector.info can also be used to check the validity of a website, however, do be aware that some of these will allow companies to pay to have negative reviews removed which can cause someone to miss a scam. Scamadvisor.com is one of those sites which will allow negative reviews to be removed. It is best to check multiple websites rather than just one.
You can also install protection on your computer or browser which can detect malware a website is trying to install. This can be in the form of virus protection or browser extension (although you will still want to investigate these also. One we use is located at https://www.malwarebytes.com.
For more information, check out these articles:
http://surveysatrap.com/paid-survey-scams-exposed-15-ways-to-avoid-and-report-companies/
https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/7-ways-to-spot-a-survey-scam/
https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Survey-Scams