Survey scams can come in many forms. You may receive a call, email, text or see a social media post inviting you to take a short questionnaire. They often offer incentives for your response like cash prizes, electronics or even vacations – but first you must give them payment and/or your personal information.

Don’t compromise your financial information for a promise that’s too good to be true! Watch out for these common identifiers that an online survey is a scam:

• The survey asks you to enter your personal information, like your Social Security Number, credit card information or account passwords.
  
  
• The survey questions contain bad grammar or misspelled words.
  
  
• The website you use to take the survey does not explain how they use their information or does not have a privacy policy.
  
  
• The email soliciting your survey response has a suspicious link or attachment.
  
  
• The survey offers you an expensive gift, like an iPad or a cruise, and requires you to pay for a shipping or processing fee.
  
  
• The survey sender’s email address is from a free domain like Gmail or AOL instead of a company domain.
  

Remember: you should not submit personal or financial information to anyone you do not know over the phone or the internet. Do not open any suspicious links or attachments – and when you receive a survey, always type the name into a search engine to see if a scam warning pops up.