Blogging For Kicks

…aren’t surveys supposed to be questions that ask for your opinions on different subjects or products? That’s what I’ve always understood, but lately it seems surveys are simply schemes to get you to buy stuff. When did it change?

I have been inundated with offers to earn money and prizes for filling out “simple surveys”, and figuring I have as many opinions as anyone else, I decided to sign up for some. I mean, who can’t use a little extra cash these days, right? The problem is, most every one I sign up for ends up taking me to pages and pages of offers for stuff I have no need for, stuff I don’t really care to have, and stuff I couldn’t afford even if I did need or want it. And if you don’t check at least one - sometimes two from column A, two from column B, and two from column C - you don’t get whatever it is they told you that you’d won, or would receive for filling out the survey. How is that not fraud?

I’ve also received e-mails telling me I’ve won a laptop, a free vacation, and even a pair of name brand diamond studded watches, only to find out I have to complete Silver, Gold, and Platinum offers first, or else I’m out of luck. Now, I know that’s fraudulent, that if someone tells you you’ve won something they can’t then turn around and make you perform tricks for them in order to get whatever it is, or else pay “a small service fee”. How do they get away with it?

I have found a couple of survey places that actually do send surveys with questions to answer about certain products and services, etc, but I only get entries into Sweepstakes for those. Well, maybe if I ever got to actually do one I might get paid, but it seems I’m always in the wrong demographic, or the survey’s already had enough respondents, or something of that nature. Needless to say, I never seem to win any of those sweepstakes, no matter how many entries I’ve won and entered, so I have to wonder if those are on the up-and-up, too.

I remember when the old bait-and-switch was illegal, and businesses who participated in them would get in trouble when caught. What’s happened to that idea? Does the internet negate all sense of fairplay and equity? Are they really allowed to scam people right and left with impunity? And what about all these foreigners that send e-mails saying you’ve won millions in lotteries, or you’ve been chosen to receive millions from someone’s estate who has no beneficiary? Why can’t these people be stopped, especially when you contact people who should be able to do something about it? It’s just not right, I tell you.

Yes, I am older, and maybe I’m relying on old-fashioned ideas of right and wrong, but I happen to believe that’s the way things ought to be. No one should have the right to cheat people, lie to them to get their money, and promise one thing but give another - or nothing at all. It is pure-o-D fraud, and needs to be treated as such. These things are so prevalent that it shouldn’t be hard to find and stop them, yet they go on and on, and I have to wonder just how many people really believe it all and lose money because of it. The one that really bugs me at the moment is supposedly from a US soldier who’s battalion found a ton of money in one of Saddam’s old hideouts and decided to keep a few mil. The problem is, he needs someone to receive this money, and then send him his part while keeping the rest. That is so wrong on so many levels I can’t even begin to describe them all, and yet I’ve gotten three of those things from three different people, supposedly. And no one can stop it. Why?

I love the internet. I know that those of you who have never known a world without it probably think nothing of it, just as I never gave a thought to how strange it must have been to my grandparents to drive around in cars or fly across the country in airplanes, meaning they could get hundreds of miles in a few hours instead of a week or more by horse and carriage. It was normal to me, and just another part of life. The internet, however, is a new and wonderful thing, making research into any subject just a matter of punching a few buttons in the comfort of your home or office instead of running all over the place, digging through stacks of books or papers, and traveling all over the world to find what you need - if you could find it.

However, when faced with the increasing fraud and, yes, outright evil that is being perpetrated by so many users of this wonderful medium, one has to wonder just how great it really is. It just seems to have made it easier to do that kind of thing, with a larger audience and a more profitable cash cow for thieves and hucksters. Honestly, someone ought to do something, don’t you think?