Ah, the allure of easy money. BigSpot knows their target audience.
I always need to preface my posts regarding online surveys.
It seems that whenever the topic comes up, a few people like to come out of the woodwork to call me a scammer for saying there are legitimate online survey companies. Real survey companies do exist people. It’s not the glamorous $75/hr jobs some websites try and lead you to believe, but if you sign up for enough companies and spend enough time taking surveys, you can easily make some extra spare change each month.
It’s true! Honest.
Also, a legitimate survey company will never ask you for money or to complete offers as part of a survey. These are not surveys, but scams. As long as you know that online surveys aren’t insanely lucrative and you never spend a dime to take a survey, you’ll do just fine.
Is BigSpot.com a Scam?
BigSpot.com, while free to join and use, isn’t exactly a survey company and they do tell you this upfront. Instead, what they’re doing is “matching” you with other survey companies. You fill out a small form with your demographics and they send you a list of survey companies they recommend you join.
You do have to decline a number of “offers” (read: spam) in order to get to the list of companies and this is where BigSpot.com makes it’s money. If you’re not careful, you could be giving away your private and personal information to a bunch of companies you’ve never even heard of. You’ll receive junk mail, credit card offers, spam, and just about every annoying type of direct mail offer you can imagine.
While BigSpot says they aren’t selling your information to these companies directly, your miss clicks here could technically count as your consent and you are basically sending your personal information to third parties.
So, I’d have to say that while BigSpot.com technically isn’t a scam, I still wouldn’t recommend joining them.
There is one redeeming quality to the site. Right on the main page is this paragraph…
Will I get rich?
No, silly. You’re not going to get rich taking surveys. You’ll have the opportunity to put some extra cash in your pocket each month and the chance to earn some really great rewards.
It’s a good relief from the usual scams that claim you could be making hundreds of dollars per hour and could even live off of the money you make taking surveys. They’re at least upfront about the income you could expect to earn.
In the end, you don’t need BigSpot. It’s just collecting emails to show you a list of survey companies.
Try These 3 Legit Sites Instead
BigSpot.com isn’t necessarily a scam. It’s not costing you anything, but they aren’t representing themselves fairly either.
You can skip all the hassle of shelling out your private information to a random company and join a few legitimate survey companies directly. Here are three that I highly recommend above the rest:
- Swagbucks – Login, answer questions, take polls, watch videos, make money. I’ve cashed out a couple hundred dollars in my first few months of joining. Absolutely a must join.
- SurveySavvy – This is my all time favorite survey company. I’ve cashed out thousands of dollars over the past 4 years from both my completed surveys and referrals. This one is highly recommended.
- PaidViewpoint – PaidViewpoint is a fun way to pick up some extra cash in your spare time. You answer short three question surveys every few hours. Some surveys were created by companies, other by users. Every survey you take has a chance at earning you cash. It’s fun, easy, and definitely worth checking out.
You can click here and check out a list of 15 additional survey companies. These are all legitimate companies that are looking for panel members to complete SURVEYS. They’re not looking for you to complete offers, you won’t have to spend any money, and you WILL get paid.
Always remember that survey companies aren’t going to be the answer to your financial woes. They can be a fun way to earn some extra money in your downtime, but that’s it.
Don’t join any survey site expecting a windfall of cash. That’s just not going to happen. And anyone telling you otherwise is looking to make money off of you by either scamming you or selling your personal information.
Stay vigilant.