If you’ve been doing paid surveys for a while, or if you’ve read my article about who qualifies for the most surveys, you may be tempted to lie on your demographic questionnaires in order to get more survey invitations. Once you have taken a lot of surveys, you start to get a feeling about what they are looking for in the qualification questionnaires.
And while I believe most survey takers stretch a few truths (I am the sole decision maker on automobile purchases… as long as my wife approves, of course), it is a bad idea to lie on these forms. Here are my reasons why:
1. Lying is breaching the contract you have with the site. If you are caught lying on surveys, then the money you have earned taking surveys may be forfeit. IF you have a $500 check about to be sent and the survey site cross references some data and realizes you don’t actually own your house after you said you did, you might not see that check. Or any future survey offers.
2. Lying will lead you to take surveys you are unqualified to take. This will lead to bad data for the survey companies. These companies are paying good money for this data that they can use to market their products, and it is our responsibility to provide quality information.
3. Lying will lead to boring surveys. Taking surveys is better than work because I get to give my opinion on stuff I am actually interested in. I would much rather be paid $10 to take a survey about action movies than $15 to take a survey about fingernail polish (because I am a man, and action movies fit MY demographic!)
In summary, it is safer, easier, and more fun to tell the truth and take surveys on stuff you are qualified to. Happy surveying.
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