Are the "make money online by taking surveys" scams?

I would say most of these paid survey sites are scams. A lot of these sites want you to pay them anywhere from $25 up and they will give you a list of survey websites that pay you for taking surveys. A couple years ago when I was in college I fell for this and I paid $35 to get this magical list filled with money making opportunities. After joining about 100 survey websites , I figured out that I had been scammed out of $35. I emailed the website I had paid and demanded a refund. They did refund my money, while all the while I was still enrolled in these survey sites. I participated in as many surveys I could in hopes of receiving check after check. The checks never came so I slowly opted out of a lot of the sites. 5 years later my survey list is down to 3 that I participate in regularly and I do receive money.
The first website is Lightspeed Consumer Panel . At this site you take surveys for points (on average about 75 pts per survey) when you get a certain number of points you can cash in for gifts, gift cards, electronics, and money via paypal. For example to get $10 on paypal (which you can transfer into your bank account) it costs 1150 points. I usually save up my points until Christmas time and then cash in to help pay for my presents. This year I choose not to cash in but if I would have cashed in last December I would have gotten $40 which is 4600 points. It isn't much and it took me 11 months, but it is money that I haven't had to work very hard for and its better than nothing.
The second website is MySurvey. This website also does points for surveys but the point to money ratio is a lot better. Here 1000 points is equal to $10. This website sends you a check. If I would have cashed in my points I would have gotten $50 for my 5000 points. Here you can also cash in for other things such as gifts, electronics, tools, a grill, you can also donate to a charity with your points, it is great!
The third website doesn't give you points, it only enters you into a raffle and they have like 25 winners a month or so. Oh I should mention the other two sites also do raffles on top of the point system for more chances to win things. The third website is NPD Online Research . I take these surveys because I don't mind doing it. They only take about 5-10 minutes and so it isn't a big deal to me that I'm only getting a "chance" to win. A couple Mays ago I did win $100 which they sent in check form after having been a member and taking surveys for 2+ years, so it balanced out with about as much money as I'm making with the other sites.
None of these sites will get you rich quick, I haven't figured out how to do that yet, but they will get you about an extra $100 a year which is nice for some mad money. Some of you may have more qualifying factors in your life to provide you with more surveys. You fill out a little questionnaire about yourself so they know what surveys apply to you, so everyone's opportunities are different. I don't drink or smoke or have pets or live in a very populated state so there's only so much to ask me, others with those things probably get more surveys than I do. I hope this helps and will provide you with a little extra money. If you have some other good surveys sites I'd love to know about them!!

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