Wednesday 22 February 2012

How to Bypass Surveys? Online Surveys and Your Privacy

Several times a day, most days of the week, we receive email from our readers asking the same question: how to bypass surveys? (mostly sharecash, CPALead and file ice). We love getting email, however, it's not always possible for us to reply individually and we are starting to get a little bored.

We think surveys is pretty much always a sign of a scam, so probably no one's going to like this answer. Here's how it works. CPA (cost per action) ad networks pay only when the desired action has occurred; for example, an online survey has been successfully completed. Affiliate marketers make commission based off your submission of information to a company database. It can be email address, phone number or any other information about you. This information can and probably will be used in future marketing campaigns.



Let's say you want to watch your favorite TV show online. You found a website which looks legit and has your favorite TV show. You're about to watch it but the website brings you to a survey that you have to fill out to get to the content. Usually, you can choose from several offers. My all time 'favorite' is the Love Thermometer. Basically, you need to sign up for the Love Thermometer by entering your phone number. It costs $10 per week to send your 'scores'. Bonus: they will send ads to your phone. Isn't that great? Honestly, it doesn't worth the risk. The truth be told, there are literally hundreds of fake internet survey websites. So, I wouldn't fill out paid surveys if I were you. After all, you may not get the requested file or video simply because it doesn't exist. There are many free and safe websites that offer file downloads and video streaming without annoying pop-up surveys.

Recently we stumbled upon another potentially harmful online survey which encourages users to install free 'Coupon Printer'. Everyone wants to save money, so Coupon Printer isn't such a bad idea after all. However, you need to read every single line very carefully before installing 'printers' and other software recommend in surveys. In our case, the 'Coupon Printer' offer came with an extra 'ingredient' -- MyWebSearch adware. We couldn't even finish the survey because our antivirus software blocked it.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to bypass surveys on websites. Let's take Share Cash surveys for instance. You can't really bypass their extremely annoying surveys and it's not because we haven't tried, it's because the way they laid it out. Disabling JavaScript in your web browser won't help. Using XJZ survey remover and NoScript add-on won't help you either. None of these tools can actually fill out or skip surveys for you. They are designed to reveal premium (protected) content in a slightly different way. Please note, surveys ≠ 'premium' content lockers. However, you might get lucky with other survey websites.

Bypassing surveys:

1. Survey-remover.com, formerly known as XJZ Survey Remover. This bookmarklet was designed to reveal protected areas on websites. Removes surveys most of the time but it doesn't work if the survey leads to a download (sharecash). Works on Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. For more details, please visit this website: http://survey-remover.com/bookmarklet/

2. Use NoScript. A great web browser add-on trusted by many PC users. It was designed to block malicious JavaScript files but in some cases it may help you to bypass pop-up surveys too.

3. Disable JavaScript. This method is the most easiest one. However, we have to admit it rarely works. Most likely, you will get an error message followed by step-by-step instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.

4. If you get surveys from websites that normally do not serve them or surveys simply pop-up on your computer screen then your computer might have been infected with malware. Cyber criminals use surveys to monetize traffic. Download and scan your computer with recommended anti-malware software to make sure that the system is malware free.

We hope this helps. If you have any questions that aren't answered here, please feel free to contact us. Simply leave a comment below. Also, if you know how to bypass specific surveys sites, please share the information with our readers. Good luck and be safe online!

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