Toluna was one of the first survey companies I ever joined, way back in around 2009, along with Lightspeed and a few others. I did surveys all the time.
I rejoined recently. I get almost daily emails, “Agnes! We have a new survey just for you!” Do they hell. I click on the link, it says it’ll take 15 minutes, or 10, or 20, and that I’ll earn 2000 points - I’m only on 6000 at the moment, and all the rewards for, say, a fiver, cost over 40,000 points.
Every time I start the survey, the one they insist is especially for me, so obviously they must have matched this survey with my fastidiously filled out profile information, surely, or it wouldn’t be “especially” for me, every single time, it asks me a heap of questions then the page changes and comes up with “We’re sorry, we’re looking for a slightly different profile”. THEN WHY DO YOU KEEP TELLING ME YOU HAVE SURVEYS “ESPECIALLY FOR” ME?
I’m on a number of actual academic study sites. I earn proper money from them just by giving them my opinion, not my data.
I have sadly concluded that survey sites are a scam. I don’t want them to be. I want them to be a good way to earn a little bit extra, and a way to keep my brain engaged. But I don’t think they are, not any more. They used to be. I don’t understand why they’ve changed.
Oh, and since joining these new survey sites, I’ve been inundated with cold calls on my landline - these sites very often ask you to provide your phone number. This week, the robo calls are saying my internet is going to be cut off due to illegal activity. Not saying it’s Toluna, but clearly, giving your phone numbers out online, even to sites that say they guard your privacy fiercely, apparently results in a slew of cold calls.