Top scam money making websites
In a climate where job loss is high, income low and bills don’t stop just because you got laid off or are taking time off to have kids, making money online can certainly seem like a life saver. The current trend in online get rich quick schemes comes in the form of websites that offer payment to complete surveys and offers, or to write product reviews. However, for various reasons, most of these sites turn out to be scams, using barely legal methods to extract personal information from the public, promising remuneration and failing to deliver.
Some of the companies orchestrating these scams are even considered reputable, yet they freely get away with theft at no repercussion to themselves. Meantime the users whom they scam are left to wallow in their own impotence and frustration, with no way to defend themselves or to ever get redress.
Below are details of some of the top websites that offer payment in exchange for work, and the methods they use to perpetrate their scam.
CashCrate.com
CashCrate claims to pay users for signing up for offers, trying new products, completing surveys and getting cash back on purchases made at hundreds of online retailers.
CashCrate’s offers include registering for wardrobe makeover sweeps, signing up for auto insurance quotes and chances to win desirable prizes such as a year’s worth of diapers, airplane tickets, or thousands of dollars in gift cards from places like Target or Costco.
All the user has to do is “fill out the form with valid information and participate.” What this really means is that the user will be asked to:
1) provide an email address which will be sold to numerous third parties, thereby generating hundreds of spam messages to your inbox every day.
2) fill out a form that needs to include a cell phone number. The moment the cell phone number is divulged, the user will receive text spam at a cost to the USER of $9.99.
3) complete any two offers. These offers may seem free (such as a free trial to whiter teeth), but users will be asked to reveal credit card details in order to cover shipping and processing. Mostly this is a nominal fee of no more than one dollar, but the point is that CashCrate and its advertisers will acquire credit card information that may then be used in any one of a number of credit card scams.
If all the steps are not fulfilled, user participation is considered incomplete and the account will not be credited. Furthermore there are no real surveys on CashCrate, just endless pages of offers, designed to confuse the user and extract as much personal information as possible. CashCrate is visibly a scam and a dangerous one at that. Stay well away!
InboxDollars.com
Googling InboxDollars will bring up mixed reviews. As with Cashcrate, InboxDollars, which is owned by CotterWeb Enterprises, works using offers and surveys. The surveys are considered impossible to qualify for, as the survey companies are very specific in the demographics from whom they want information.
With InboxDollars, users earn five dollars for joining and can cash out at thirty dollars. Other than offers, users also receive paid emails, which pay two cents just for clicking them, plus hundreds of addictive games, also with a cash payout. Many users have reported dedicatedly playing their favorite games for several weeks, before realizing that no money has been added to their account. Upon inquiring with the support center, users are typically told that InboxDollars is not responsible and that payment will happen if and when the game hosts ever confirm their having played.
The offers aren’t any better, though they are more attractive, as many do not require credit card information in order to be considered complete. However, once an offer is completed InboxDollars closes the page, leaving no record of it having been completed. Many complaints have been submitted by users claiming to be owed credit on numerous offers on which they wasted valuable time and offered up their email for spam. Again, contacting the support center seems to be fruitless, and many are met with rude responses from scammers whose job is to absolve InboxDollars from all responsibility towards the user.
Finally, of those who have made it to the thirty dollar payout threshold, many have complained that upon requesting their payment, InboxDollars mysteriously canceled their accounts and their money was lost.
In conclusion, InboxDollars appears to be a scam, with its main aim to collect email address to sell to third parties, leaving the user with nothing but an inbox full of spam to show for their efforts.
SnapDollars.com
SnapDollars is basically the Canadian version of InboxDollars. The offers are identical; users get five dollars for joining, cash out is at thirty dollars and paid emails are sent every day. Users who have signed up for most of the offers on InboxDollars, will be unable to do the same on SnapDollars, as the advertisers already have the information and understandably don’t wish pay twice for the same account. So the message here is to choose either SnapDollars or InboxDollars, but there’s no need to sign up for both.
As with InboxDollars, reviews of SnapDollars are mixed, with the negatives including complaints about bad customer service, compensation never received for completing offers, and difficulty in qualifying for surveys. One particularly worrisome complaint comes from users who claim that SnapDollars refuses allow them to cash out their thirty dollars until they first spend fifteen dollars on offers. Others complain that SnapDollars mysteriously loses their mailing address and then removes the cash out button from their page. Basically it seems, from the enormous number of complaints that SnapDollars will do anything to wriggle out of paying its users.
On the upside, if there can be an upside, SnapDollars lets its users know which offers are one hundred percent free, so that they’ll know in advance which offers can be completed without ever being asked for credit card details.
In conclusion, the SnapDollars scam is identical to InboxDollars, with SnapDollars being just a little more imaginative in the excuses used to avoid paying users their dues.
Panda Research.com
PandaResearch has nothing to offer anyone who is not interested in divulging their credit card information. The surveys range from one to five dollars, which is more generous than the fifty cents offered by Cashcrate and InboxDollars, but every one of these surveys is attached to a free trial offer that must be completed with credit card details.
Panda Research also offers paid emails which pay two cents just for clicking on them, but it might not be worth joining just for that, as their cash out threshold is one hundred dollars. On the upside, it won’t take long to figure out that Panda Research is a waste of time, as users will not even be able to begin a survey without first signing up for a free offer using a credit card.
GlobalTestMarket.com
Before users can even begin completing paid surveys, GlobalTestMarket requires completion of a “profile survey,” which is made up of ten detailed surveys with questions ranging from household income, to travel choices, to auto insurance, to detailed information about every piece of technology in the home and workplace, to career, purchases and interests. Once users have divulged everything there is to divulge about themselves and every item that has ever come within a ten mile radius of them, they are deemed ready to begin the surveys.
Users typically complain that, upon completion of their “profile survey,” they are subsequently unable to qualify for any of the paid surveys. GlobalTestMarket emails a paid survey everyday, however upon answering a couple of questions, users are immediately told that they did not qualify. It seems that many users have never qualified for surveys, and why would they when they have already given up so much information for free?
GlobalTestMarket is a scam that extracts all the information it needs using the “profile survey,” and users will never qualify for a paid survey. There are no real paid surveys on this site, do not waste your time.
Mommytalksuverys.com
Mommytalksurveys targets new mothers, claiming, “Shared experiences between you and your baby are the most rewarding. Now earn cash rewards for sharing your opinions with us.” Earnings for most of the listed surveys range from one to three dollars, and cash out is at twenty five dollars.
But there is a catch. Just as with GlobalTestMarket, users have complained that following a ten minute pre-survey using questions closely related to the actual survey, they have been unable to qualify for the actual survey. It is now thought that there are no paid surveys on the site, as the pre-surveys provide all the necessary information required by the client company.
Based on reviews like this, it is recommended that no one wastes their time signing up to Mommytalksurveys.
MyPoints.com
MyPoints offers the opportunity to earn points for doing what you already do online: shopping, reading emails, playing games, searching the web, taking surveys, and more. Users can then covert those points to gift cards for stores and restaurants of their choosing.
However, upon reading the fine print, users will learn that no gift cards will be dispensed until they sign up for at least one “sponsored offer.” And of course these “sponsored offers” require credit card details. Again, as it is not advisable to divulge credit card information, it is not worth joining MyPoints.
There have also been a number of complaints about MyPoints mysteriously closing user accounts as soon as a payout is requested. Based on the volume and consistency of negative reviews alone, it seems reasonable to say that MyPoints is a scam.
MySurvey.com
MySurvey, which is owned by the consumer research company, Taylor Nelson Sofres, pays users to participate in consumer research surveys conducted by various participating companies. There is also a referral system that allows users to earn when they recruit new users to the site.
MySurvey.com actually pays in points, which can then be traded for cash, with one thousand points equaling ten dollars. Ten dollars is the minimum cash out amount.
Referring new users wins a user one hundred and fifty points ($1.50) for each person who qualifies and actively takes surveys.
The reviews for MySurvey mainly consist of users complaining that the payout per completed survey has dropped drastically from seventy five points ($0.75) to just ten to thirty points ($0.10 to $0.30), regardless that some of their surveys can last up to forty five minutes. This certainly places MySurvey in the slave-labor category.
ReviewStream.com
ReviewStream allows users to earn money by writing reviews about anything they desire, including homes appliances, toys, companies, hotels, politics, cities, stores on your street, or even your neighbor’s pets. ReviewStream will pay $2.50 per accepted review. Many join ReviewStream, reasoning that as they already review for Yelp, they might as well get paid for it instead.
Well that’s not quite how it works. Reviews first have to be approved, and when they are not approved users will never learn why. Instead users are directed to a page that states, in capital letters, “Your review is not valuable, we are not interested in it.” After much searching on line, you’ll uncover testimonials from previous users revealing that this is ReviewStream’s way of refusing any reviews that fall under two hundred and fifty words. This may be the case, but nowhere on the site does ReviewStream state that reviews are subject to a minimum number of words.
Reviews may also be partially approved, in a system called “bulk reviews”, whereby users get paid “the bulk rate” of one fifth of the going rate (fifty cents) for a review that is considered mediocre, but not bad enough to dump entirely. ReviewStream encourages users to include personal opinions in their reviews, but what eventually leads them to accept, partially accept or totally reject a review remains a mystery.
The cash out threshold is fifty dollars and many reviewers complain that, since most reviews are only accepted at the bulk rate of fifty cents, they may have to write up to one hundred reviews before reaching that cash out. Many users have also complained about not being paid and being met with unusually aggressive responses from staff when attempting to chase up their dues.
The other complaint is that although ReviewStream claims to respond to submissions within seventy two hours, they will more often than not take considerably longer before letting users know whether they plan to accept or reject their work.
Finally, looking at their Whois records, it appears that ReviewStream is hiding their real address by using a US proxy to register under a US address. Yet a brief email exchange with the ReviewStream staff and their poor grasp of the English language, will raise the question, where in the world is this site really based?
In conclusion, ReviewStream does not inspire trust, their business practices are questionable and user complaints are practically viral on the internet.
Constant Content
Constant content is touted as a high quality site for serious writers. You may write about anything you please, so long as it contains useful information, is not written in the first person, and expresses no personal opinions. To guarantee greater success, you are welcome to pick a title from a list of requested titles. You may also name your price per article, and some of the requested titles are priced anywhere between twenty dollars and two hundred dollars depending on the number of words.
Knowing that Constant Content accepts only the very best and most thoroughly researched writing, users toil late into the night, researching the story and minding their grammar. And then they submit. And then they are rejected.
Many users complain of articles being rejected for reasons including a missing comma, a misspelled word, a minor grammar adjustment, citing of references, use of words like ‘may be’ which apparently indicate opinion, and many more. Of course grammar needs to be perfect and guidelines need to be followed, but it seems, based on the following evidence, that Constant Content is looking for reasons to reject.
Firstly the rejection email with the explanation about the missing comma requires more effort on the part of the editor than simply inserting the comma and accepting the article. Users may certainly resubmit the article, though no more than three times according to the rules. Then it is banished forever.
What raises the most suspicion though, is that, instead of informing users of all the errors in the first rejection, Constant Content will sniff at the missing comma in rejection number one, complain about the use of ‘may be’ in rejection number two, and finally highlight a misspelled word in rejection number three. The question therefore is why did the editors not list all the errors in the first rejection, thereby maximizing the chance of accepting the article?
Constant content doesn't want the work, and will never accept the articles. Or more
specifically, constant content wants informative and well researched articles, but doesn't want to credit the user for it. Don't be surprised if you later find your hard work published in some reputable site or paper, slightly modified and under someone else's name. That's right, constant content's mission is information theft. They lure users to do the research, reject it based on unreasonable expectations, and then sell it quietly, claiming all the booty for themselves.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is one of the biggest money making opportunities advertised on the net, yet it now turns out that it may also be a total scam. The cash out threshold is one hundred dollars, and a rumor is circulating that Google terminates accounts just before they reach their cash out threshold, claiming invalid clicks, and then refusing to respond to the user’s pleas. This is extremely unsettling, as Google is a huge, reputable company and the last place where most of people would expect to be scammed.
It is not uncommon for subscribers to link their Google Adsense accounts to all manner of online publishing websites such as Helium, Hubpages, Triond, Xomba, RateItAll and many more. In spite of this it is nearly impossible to make a significant income just by relying on others to click on the ads.
However, knowing that your efforts will never bear fruit, it is probably for the best that your content rarely generates income. Still, this is the most disturbing of all the scams, as Google is strong and reputable and has no need to steal from desperate individuals.
Conclusion
Let’s start by stating the obvious; if it sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true. Many online money making sites lead you to believe that you will get rich quickly in exchange for minimum work. However this is never the case, and most websites sell your email to spammers, resort to multiple ways to avoid paying you, pay very low rates, or simply rob you after they have accessed and sold your credit card details to other companies.
The most popular credit card scam involves acquiring your credit card details, supposedly for a small shipping charge, but buried in the fine print is authorization for negative option subscriptions. Negative option subscriptions are when a merchant subscribes you to receive goods that you never requested. It is then up to you to decline these goods, otherwise it is assumed that you have agreed to purchase the goods and your card is charged. The other common credit card scam is when you are enticed to sign up for free trials using your credit card. In this case the companies are counting on you to forget to cancel the card when the free trial period is up. And if you do remember to cancel, then you’ll be made to jump through hoops before the cancellation is complete. Finally there is the risk of credit card information being stolen by individuals masquerading as companies, in a scam known as phishing. Then you have no choice but to cancel your card immediately, as your account will simply be drained by thieves.
The other key scam to avoid is being asked for you cell phone number. Do not, under any circumstances provide this information, unless you are prepared to throw money out of the window. At first you might think the worst that can happen is you'll receive some text spam. What actually happens is that you receive text spam at a cost to you of around $9.99, as demonstrated by the example phone bill below. Of course you won't know any of this until AFTER you have provided the information or received your phone bill at the end of the month.
Certainly sites exist that can earn you money, but it will never be very much. Any site that pays a decent salary will require hard work and a certain amount of personal abuse. Take Demand Media for example. There is no doubt that they pay. But most users are unable to sustain a writing career with them, as, at fifteen dollars an article they require well researched content with titles such as, ‘The Fuel Pump Location in a Mercedes C280,’ ‘The Driver Compaq Lite on the LTR482 Will Not Write,’ and ‘How to Hook Up a Tiller to a GX335.’ Unless you are a mechanic, electrician, plumber, computer engineer, or rocket scientist, writing for Demand Media will require at least an entire day of research and referencing. Fifteen dollars per article may sound good, but fifteen dollars for an entire day’s worth of hard work with no guarantee of acceptance at the end, doesn’t compute quite so well. Furthermore the internet is littered with complaints of the contemptuous and dismissive manner of Demand Media editors towards their writers. As such writers rarely stick with Demand Media for long.
So before registering with a “money-making” site, bare in mind the following: Firstly, in Google search, type the site’s name followed by the word ‘scam’ or ‘review.’ This will take you to blogs and forums filled with the opinions of previous and current users of that site. If the opinions are consistently negative, assume that the site is a scam. Secondly if anyone requests your credit card details or worse still, your social security number, immediately close that page and walk away, they are most likely trapping you into a credit card scam, as detailed above. And finally be smart. If you wish to try out a site, open a new email account for all the spam you’ll receive and keep your expectations low. None of these sites will make you rich or be a suitable replacement for your regular job.
New sites, such as those mentioned in this article are being born every day. There doesn’t appear to be any effective regulation to prevent them, so it is up to you to be vigilant and be aware that many websites that promise to pay, are in fact scams.
In a climate where job loss is high, income low and bills don’t stop just because you got laid off or are taking time off to have kids, making money online can certainly seem like a life saver. The current trend in online get rich quick schemes comes in the form of websites that offer payment to complete surveys and offers, or to write product reviews. However, for various reasons, most of these sites turn out to be scams, using barely legal methods to extract personal information from the public, promising remuneration and failing to deliver.
Some of the companies orchestrating these scams are even considered reputable, yet they freely get away with theft at no repercussion to themselves. Meantime the users whom they scam are left to wallow in their own impotence and frustration, with no way to defend themselves or to ever get redress.
Below are details of some of the top websites that offer payment in exchange for work, and the methods they use to perpetrate their scam.
CashCrate.com
CashCrate claims to pay users for signing up for offers, trying new products, completing surveys and getting cash back on purchases made at hundreds of online retailers.
CashCrate’s offers include registering for wardrobe makeover sweeps, signing up for auto insurance quotes and chances to win desirable prizes such as a year’s worth of diapers, airplane tickets, or thousands of dollars in gift cards from places like Target or Costco.
All the user has to do is “fill out the form with valid information and participate.” What this really means is that the user will be asked to:
1) provide an email address which will be sold to numerous third parties, thereby generating hundreds of spam messages to your inbox every day.
2) fill out a form that needs to include a cell phone number. The moment the cell phone number is divulged, the user will receive text spam at a cost to the USER of $9.99.
3) complete any two offers. These offers may seem free (such as a free trial to whiter teeth), but users will be asked to reveal credit card details in order to cover shipping and processing. Mostly this is a nominal fee of no more than one dollar, but the point is that CashCrate and its advertisers will acquire credit card information that may then be used in any one of a number of credit card scams.
If all the steps are not fulfilled, user participation is considered incomplete and the account will not be credited. Furthermore there are no real surveys on CashCrate, just endless pages of offers, designed to confuse the user and extract as much personal information as possible. CashCrate is visibly a scam and a dangerous one at that. Stay well away!
InboxDollars.com
Googling InboxDollars will bring up mixed reviews. As with Cashcrate, InboxDollars, which is owned by CotterWeb Enterprises, works using offers and surveys. The surveys are considered impossible to qualify for, as the survey companies are very specific in the demographics from whom they want information.
With InboxDollars, users earn five dollars for joining and can cash out at thirty dollars. Other than offers, users also receive paid emails, which pay two cents just for clicking them, plus hundreds of addictive games, also with a cash payout. Many users have reported dedicatedly playing their favorite games for several weeks, before realizing that no money has been added to their account. Upon inquiring with the support center, users are typically told that InboxDollars is not responsible and that payment will happen if and when the game hosts ever confirm their having played.
The offers aren’t any better, though they are more attractive, as many do not require credit card information in order to be considered complete. However, once an offer is completed InboxDollars closes the page, leaving no record of it having been completed. Many complaints have been submitted by users claiming to be owed credit on numerous offers on which they wasted valuable time and offered up their email for spam. Again, contacting the support center seems to be fruitless, and many are met with rude responses from scammers whose job is to absolve InboxDollars from all responsibility towards the user.
Finally, of those who have made it to the thirty dollar payout threshold, many have complained that upon requesting their payment, InboxDollars mysteriously canceled their accounts and their money was lost.
In conclusion, InboxDollars appears to be a scam, with its main aim to collect email address to sell to third parties, leaving the user with nothing but an inbox full of spam to show for their efforts.
SnapDollars.com
SnapDollars is basically the Canadian version of InboxDollars. The offers are identical; users get five dollars for joining, cash out is at thirty dollars and paid emails are sent every day. Users who have signed up for most of the offers on InboxDollars, will be unable to do the same on SnapDollars, as the advertisers already have the information and understandably don’t wish pay twice for the same account. So the message here is to choose either SnapDollars or InboxDollars, but there’s no need to sign up for both.
As with InboxDollars, reviews of SnapDollars are mixed, with the negatives including complaints about bad customer service, compensation never received for completing offers, and difficulty in qualifying for surveys. One particularly worrisome complaint comes from users who claim that SnapDollars refuses allow them to cash out their thirty dollars until they first spend fifteen dollars on offers. Others complain that SnapDollars mysteriously loses their mailing address and then removes the cash out button from their page. Basically it seems, from the enormous number of complaints that SnapDollars will do anything to wriggle out of paying its users.
On the upside, if there can be an upside, SnapDollars lets its users know which offers are one hundred percent free, so that they’ll know in advance which offers can be completed without ever being asked for credit card details.
In conclusion, the SnapDollars scam is identical to InboxDollars, with SnapDollars being just a little more imaginative in the excuses used to avoid paying users their dues.
Panda Research.com
PandaResearch has nothing to offer anyone who is not interested in divulging their credit card information. The surveys range from one to five dollars, which is more generous than the fifty cents offered by Cashcrate and InboxDollars, but every one of these surveys is attached to a free trial offer that must be completed with credit card details.
Panda Research also offers paid emails which pay two cents just for clicking on them, but it might not be worth joining just for that, as their cash out threshold is one hundred dollars. On the upside, it won’t take long to figure out that Panda Research is a waste of time, as users will not even be able to begin a survey without first signing up for a free offer using a credit card.
GlobalTestMarket.com
Before users can even begin completing paid surveys, GlobalTestMarket requires completion of a “profile survey,” which is made up of ten detailed surveys with questions ranging from household income, to travel choices, to auto insurance, to detailed information about every piece of technology in the home and workplace, to career, purchases and interests. Once users have divulged everything there is to divulge about themselves and every item that has ever come within a ten mile radius of them, they are deemed ready to begin the surveys.
Users typically complain that, upon completion of their “profile survey,” they are subsequently unable to qualify for any of the paid surveys. GlobalTestMarket emails a paid survey everyday, however upon answering a couple of questions, users are immediately told that they did not qualify. It seems that many users have never qualified for surveys, and why would they when they have already given up so much information for free?
GlobalTestMarket is a scam that extracts all the information it needs using the “profile survey,” and users will never qualify for a paid survey. There are no real paid surveys on this site, do not waste your time.
Mommytalksuverys.com
Mommytalksurveys targets new mothers, claiming, “Shared experiences between you and your baby are the most rewarding. Now earn cash rewards for sharing your opinions with us.” Earnings for most of the listed surveys range from one to three dollars, and cash out is at twenty five dollars.
But there is a catch. Just as with GlobalTestMarket, users have complained that following a ten minute pre-survey using questions closely related to the actual survey, they have been unable to qualify for the actual survey. It is now thought that there are no paid surveys on the site, as the pre-surveys provide all the necessary information required by the client company.
Based on reviews like this, it is recommended that no one wastes their time signing up to Mommytalksurveys.
MyPoints.com
MyPoints offers the opportunity to earn points for doing what you already do online: shopping, reading emails, playing games, searching the web, taking surveys, and more. Users can then covert those points to gift cards for stores and restaurants of their choosing.
However, upon reading the fine print, users will learn that no gift cards will be dispensed until they sign up for at least one “sponsored offer.” And of course these “sponsored offers” require credit card details. Again, as it is not advisable to divulge credit card information, it is not worth joining MyPoints.
There have also been a number of complaints about MyPoints mysteriously closing user accounts as soon as a payout is requested. Based on the volume and consistency of negative reviews alone, it seems reasonable to say that MyPoints is a scam.
MySurvey.com
MySurvey, which is owned by the consumer research company, Taylor Nelson Sofres, pays users to participate in consumer research surveys conducted by various participating companies. There is also a referral system that allows users to earn when they recruit new users to the site.
MySurvey.com actually pays in points, which can then be traded for cash, with one thousand points equaling ten dollars. Ten dollars is the minimum cash out amount.
Referring new users wins a user one hundred and fifty points ($1.50) for each person who qualifies and actively takes surveys.
The reviews for MySurvey mainly consist of users complaining that the payout per completed survey has dropped drastically from seventy five points ($0.75) to just ten to thirty points ($0.10 to $0.30), regardless that some of their surveys can last up to forty five minutes. This certainly places MySurvey in the slave-labor category.
ReviewStream.com
ReviewStream allows users to earn money by writing reviews about anything they desire, including homes appliances, toys, companies, hotels, politics, cities, stores on your street, or even your neighbor’s pets. ReviewStream will pay $2.50 per accepted review. Many join ReviewStream, reasoning that as they already review for Yelp, they might as well get paid for it instead.
Well that’s not quite how it works. Reviews first have to be approved, and when they are not approved users will never learn why. Instead users are directed to a page that states, in capital letters, “Your review is not valuable, we are not interested in it.” After much searching on line, you’ll uncover testimonials from previous users revealing that this is ReviewStream’s way of refusing any reviews that fall under two hundred and fifty words. This may be the case, but nowhere on the site does ReviewStream state that reviews are subject to a minimum number of words.
Reviews may also be partially approved, in a system called “bulk reviews”, whereby users get paid “the bulk rate” of one fifth of the going rate (fifty cents) for a review that is considered mediocre, but not bad enough to dump entirely. ReviewStream encourages users to include personal opinions in their reviews, but what eventually leads them to accept, partially accept or totally reject a review remains a mystery.
The cash out threshold is fifty dollars and many reviewers complain that, since most reviews are only accepted at the bulk rate of fifty cents, they may have to write up to one hundred reviews before reaching that cash out. Many users have also complained about not being paid and being met with unusually aggressive responses from staff when attempting to chase up their dues.
The other complaint is that although ReviewStream claims to respond to submissions within seventy two hours, they will more often than not take considerably longer before letting users know whether they plan to accept or reject their work.
Finally, looking at their Whois records, it appears that ReviewStream is hiding their real address by using a US proxy to register under a US address. Yet a brief email exchange with the ReviewStream staff and their poor grasp of the English language, will raise the question, where in the world is this site really based?
In conclusion, ReviewStream does not inspire trust, their business practices are questionable and user complaints are practically viral on the internet.
Constant Content
Constant content is touted as a high quality site for serious writers. You may write about anything you please, so long as it contains useful information, is not written in the first person, and expresses no personal opinions. To guarantee greater success, you are welcome to pick a title from a list of requested titles. You may also name your price per article, and some of the requested titles are priced anywhere between twenty dollars and two hundred dollars depending on the number of words.
Knowing that Constant Content accepts only the very best and most thoroughly researched writing, users toil late into the night, researching the story and minding their grammar. And then they submit. And then they are rejected.
Many users complain of articles being rejected for reasons including a missing comma, a misspelled word, a minor grammar adjustment, citing of references, use of words like ‘may be’ which apparently indicate opinion, and many more. Of course grammar needs to be perfect and guidelines need to be followed, but it seems, based on the following evidence, that Constant Content is looking for reasons to reject.
Firstly the rejection email with the explanation about the missing comma requires more effort on the part of the editor than simply inserting the comma and accepting the article. Users may certainly resubmit the article, though no more than three times according to the rules. Then it is banished forever.
What raises the most suspicion though, is that, instead of informing users of all the errors in the first rejection, Constant Content will sniff at the missing comma in rejection number one, complain about the use of ‘may be’ in rejection number two, and finally highlight a misspelled word in rejection number three. The question therefore is why did the editors not list all the errors in the first rejection, thereby maximizing the chance of accepting the article?
Constant content doesn't want the work, and will never accept the articles. Or more
specifically, constant content wants informative and well researched articles, but doesn't want to credit the user for it. Don't be surprised if you later find your hard work published in some reputable site or paper, slightly modified and under someone else's name. That's right, constant content's mission is information theft. They lure users to do the research, reject it based on unreasonable expectations, and then sell it quietly, claiming all the booty for themselves.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is one of the biggest money making opportunities advertised on the net, yet it now turns out that it may also be a total scam. The cash out threshold is one hundred dollars, and a rumor is circulating that Google terminates accounts just before they reach their cash out threshold, claiming invalid clicks, and then refusing to respond to the user’s pleas. This is extremely unsettling, as Google is a huge, reputable company and the last place where most of people would expect to be scammed.
It is not uncommon for subscribers to link their Google Adsense accounts to all manner of online publishing websites such as Helium, Hubpages, Triond, Xomba, RateItAll and many more. In spite of this it is nearly impossible to make a significant income just by relying on others to click on the ads.
However, knowing that your efforts will never bear fruit, it is probably for the best that your content rarely generates income. Still, this is the most disturbing of all the scams, as Google is strong and reputable and has no need to steal from desperate individuals.
Conclusion
Let’s start by stating the obvious; if it sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true. Many online money making sites lead you to believe that you will get rich quickly in exchange for minimum work. However this is never the case, and most websites sell your email to spammers, resort to multiple ways to avoid paying you, pay very low rates, or simply rob you after they have accessed and sold your credit card details to other companies.
The most popular credit card scam involves acquiring your credit card details, supposedly for a small shipping charge, but buried in the fine print is authorization for negative option subscriptions. Negative option subscriptions are when a merchant subscribes you to receive goods that you never requested. It is then up to you to decline these goods, otherwise it is assumed that you have agreed to purchase the goods and your card is charged. The other common credit card scam is when you are enticed to sign up for free trials using your credit card. In this case the companies are counting on you to forget to cancel the card when the free trial period is up. And if you do remember to cancel, then you’ll be made to jump through hoops before the cancellation is complete. Finally there is the risk of credit card information being stolen by individuals masquerading as companies, in a scam known as phishing. Then you have no choice but to cancel your card immediately, as your account will simply be drained by thieves.
The other key scam to avoid is being asked for you cell phone number. Do not, under any circumstances provide this information, unless you are prepared to throw money out of the window. At first you might think the worst that can happen is you'll receive some text spam. What actually happens is that you receive text spam at a cost to you of around $9.99, as demonstrated by the example phone bill below. Of course you won't know any of this until AFTER you have provided the information or received your phone bill at the end of the month.
Certainly sites exist that can earn you money, but it will never be very much. Any site that pays a decent salary will require hard work and a certain amount of personal abuse. Take Demand Media for example. There is no doubt that they pay. But most users are unable to sustain a writing career with them, as, at fifteen dollars an article they require well researched content with titles such as, ‘The Fuel Pump Location in a Mercedes C280,’ ‘The Driver Compaq Lite on the LTR482 Will Not Write,’ and ‘How to Hook Up a Tiller to a GX335.’ Unless you are a mechanic, electrician, plumber, computer engineer, or rocket scientist, writing for Demand Media will require at least an entire day of research and referencing. Fifteen dollars per article may sound good, but fifteen dollars for an entire day’s worth of hard work with no guarantee of acceptance at the end, doesn’t compute quite so well. Furthermore the internet is littered with complaints of the contemptuous and dismissive manner of Demand Media editors towards their writers. As such writers rarely stick with Demand Media for long.
So before registering with a “money-making” site, bare in mind the following: Firstly, in Google search, type the site’s name followed by the word ‘scam’ or ‘review.’ This will take you to blogs and forums filled with the opinions of previous and current users of that site. If the opinions are consistently negative, assume that the site is a scam. Secondly if anyone requests your credit card details or worse still, your social security number, immediately close that page and walk away, they are most likely trapping you into a credit card scam, as detailed above. And finally be smart. If you wish to try out a site, open a new email account for all the spam you’ll receive and keep your expectations low. None of these sites will make you rich or be a suitable replacement for your regular job.
New sites, such as those mentioned in this article are being born every day. There doesn’t appear to be any effective regulation to prevent them, so it is up to you to be vigilant and be aware that many websites that promise to pay, are in fact scams.
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