Interested in filling out surveys for market research firms in India and other countries? Want to make brands hear your opinions and pain points? But worried about scams prevalent in the industry that steal your personal data? Then this blog post is for you.

Read along and learn how to identify market research opportunities that can make you some pocket money and share your opinions with companies.

7 Tips To Distinguish Legitimate Market Research Opportunities From Scams

1.    What Do the Reviews Say?

As a participant, your first job is to research about the company you’re working with. Whether you participate in a survey via a panel company or directly with a brand, research the surveying company.

For this, go to review websites and check public opinions about the company. Log in to social media and observe what people are talking about the panel or the brand as a survey participant. Skim through news articles about them.

If you find more negative feedback than positive, it’s time you back out.

2.    Do They Ask For a Fee?

Trustworthy market research firms and brands never ask for money for your participation. They understand that sharing your opinions in focus groups or via online surveys takes effort and time from your end. And for that, they always reward you—in gift vouchers, cash, or points.

Fraud surveys ask for an upfront fee just to join the panel or to help you pass the screening processes of popular brands and survey companies. And to substantiate their claims, they make tall promises—one that looks too good to be true.

3.    Do They Make Tall Promises?

Identifying market research opportunities that are genuine is easy by looking at the offers a company makes.

A lot of fraudsters lure participants with the promise of making them rich in months. If a survey claims to make your life debt-free by compensating for your time, run in the opposite direction.

Promises such as “never go back to your day job again”, “live a debt-free life”, or “let our survey pay your education loan” are a sure sign of stinking schemes.

4. Do They Reward? How?

No survey pays you in millions. They only compensate your time in gift vouchers, cash prizes, discount coupons, or PayPal payments. A lot of panel companies pay you in points. After a certain amount of time or quota of points, you can redeem them against gifts or discount coupons or in some other ways.

Some panels and brands also offer you brownie points when you refer your friends and family to their research. But remember, zero rewards and jackpots, both are a hint for you to stop hitting that submit button on their profile creation app.

Know these 7 consumer rights in market research before you participate.

5. What Do Their Terms and Conditions Say?

If a survey panel is legit, they have a dedicated page for their terms and conditions. They seek your consent when you first create your demographic profile. They also opt for your agreement while you submit your responses to a survey.

A clear guideline about where to escalate any issues, a grievance officer’s number, or helpdesk contact should be available on their terms and conditions page. They should also mention how they will process your demographical data, your opinions, and the collected data as a whole. Their data archival process is also systematic and transparent.

Trustworthy market research firms and brands follow the regulatory guidelines on third-party data sharing, data security, and ethics pertaining to your region, if not global. Some of the primary global policies they should care about are CCPA, HIPPA, and GDPR.

Read our comprehensive guide on your data privacy and security with online surveys.

6. Do They Seek Sensitive Personal Data?

If a surveying company is genuine, they never ask for your sensitive personal data. Information as sensitive as your credit card data or bank details, your social security number, and anything that you don’t wish to share with an absolute stranger is a strict restriction when it comes to your demographic profile.

Only fraudsters who run financial scams or conduct identity theft need such crucial and private data from anyone. Legit panel companies need your demographic data such as age, gender, occupation, location, education, and psychographic details such as your interests, hobbies, etc.

7. What Does Your Gut Say?

When all of these parameters confuse you, ask your instincts. Skim through their emails and check if the domain name matches their brand or one of their associated companies. Whether the email reads legitimately or not and if the survey has some meat or sounds hollow should be your parameters to judge legitimate market research firms in India or elsewhere.

If you’ve any suspicions, don’t pursue the survey company. You might find better opportunities just by digging a little more and with some patience.

Before you leave, read about these 5 lesser known facts about online surveys.

Why Join Opinionest?

Opinionest is the panel company that caters to Track Opinion’s market research endeavors. Our experience exceeds 14 years, and our expertise matches that of top market research brands. When you join our research panel, you are rewarded with your efforts in lieu of your opinions and not any sensitive information.

You don’t need to worry about identifying market research opportunities that are apt for you because we do that in the background. If you want to register for free, join us here.