I just can’t help myself.  Whenever someone sends me an email survey, I have to click on it. I cannot resist sharing my opinion with someone who actually asks for it!  But when I am lured with the words, “paid survey,” I drop everything else I was intending to do until I go for the gold.  Unfortunately, these surveys are generally not quite the easy money they would appear to be.

For a few months I actually was registered to take paid surveys through a site whose name I forgot.  Every few days, the site would send me new opportunities to take surveys and list what the survey paid.  If I really hit the jackpot, I could make $1.00.  Most of the time I only made ten or twenty cents.  But it gradually added up and when the amount in my account totaled over $10.00, I could request a check.  I think in the end, after several months, I earned a grand total of around $100.00 for several hours of taking surveys. The problem was that in many of the surveys, particularly the higher paying ones of $1.00, I would be twenty minutes in and half-way through the survey when suddenly, the cyber powers that be decided I wasn’t qualified to take the survey, or they didn’t like my answers, or perhaps the computer just hated me for no reason (as all computers do) and I received a message saying they were sorry but I didn’t fit something or other they were looking for, but thanks for trying.  This was especially annoying after I had slogged away answering stupid questions for twenty minutes in which I could have been playing solitaire, only to be booted out.

So, what did I just do tonight?  I received another email saying:

Hi ELLEN,

We obtained your information from The Florida DBPR as a licensed Veterinarian with license number XXXX through a public records request.

This is a NEW important survey for veterinarians!

If you qualify and complete the survey, you will get a $10 Amazon gift card. Plus you might learn something new!


Okay, this is not the first time I’ve gotten these surveys.  In fact, I’ve probably gotten more than two dozen of them over the past year or so.  And only once did I finish the survey.  I never did figure out how to get the promised Amazon gift card, so it was all for naught.  But there it was again tonight.  And what did I do?  You guessed it.  I immediately clicked on the button that said, “Click here to start survey.”

This is what came up:

Thank you so much for trying to complete this survey.  We really appreciate your time to give it a shot!

This survey has some limits on the number of people who are allowed to complete the survey in each state, demographic group, and some other classifications.

It looks like the group you would fit into has reached its maximum.  I’m sorry we couldn’t communicate this in advance but we sincerely appreciate the time you spent on the survey.

Rats!  How could my group already be filled?  I just got the blasted email for Pete’s sake! Couldn’t the public records also address my demographic group before inviting me to participate and getting my hopes up for a paid survey?  Is there only one slot allotted to old, white female veterinarians and the one person who got there ahead of me obviously didn’t have to stop and help her son with math homework?  It’s not fair.  I swear this is absolutely the last time I will be tempted to click on this survey! Probably.  Maybe. Okay, who am I kidding? I’m still a sucker.

At least it’s not as time-consuming as the political survey that came in the mail.  This was a full two pages, front and back questionnaire which I meticulously and honestly spent thirty minutes answering, before getting to the end where it said, “Send money.”  I have now gone from getting paid to take surveys to having to pay to take surveys!  Even I’m not that gullible. If they want my opinions, they can have them for nothing!  Let’s take a survey and see who’s with me!