Don't fall prey to online surveys

MUMBAI, INDIA: With the Internet becoming an essential part of everyday business and communication, it has become an integral medium for information dissemination as well as aggregation.

Given the extensive and powerful reach of Internet, marketing and research companies are using it as a key tool to conduct surveys, polls and publicity campaigns.

But the recent SpeakAsia fraud that surfaced in India has raised some important questions on the authenticity of such online survey and marketing companies as well as how can normal people safeguard themselves against those ponzi schemes.

Many industry experts believe that the SpeakAsia fraud wouldn't have come into public or raised government's eyebrows if it didn't involve huge amount of money.

There are various online schemes or surveys which don't charge any fees like SpeakAsia but the users or respondents are asked to fill forms, forward emails or click on banners, etc.

And respondents are lured into false payment claims such rewards or points into their bank accounts, debit or credit cards and so forth.

For instance, Mumbai-based Virendra Singh, a marketing research professional, was a regular respondent to a company's online surveys for the past one year.

“Till date I haven't received any rewards or money from the company. I used to spend 15-20 minutes for every survey and have wasted a lot of my time, efforts and spent money on Internet,” Singh points out.

And it is not just online survey, even cellphone-based surveys are conducted via SMS and instant messages.

Now, with the growth of Internet and mobiles in India, certainly people here are prone to such scams as seen in the case of SpeakAsia.

“Though Internet penetration in India is less than 10 per cent, market research agencies and companies are moving on to online survey and studies. And online data collection or surveys are becoming an important tool for marketing and research firms today,” says Pravin Shekar, ESOMAR Council member, founder of the Social Catalyst and Krea's kreator-in-chief.

ESOMAR is a global association of research professionals and has come out with the international code of conduct on market research and professional standards.

For online researchers, the trade body has laid three guiding principles which include treating the respondent with respect, researchers must be sensitive to consumer concerns and they must remain diligent in maintaining the distinction between research and commercial activities such as direct marketing or advertisement targeting.

“It's right time now to have strong guidelines for online researchers and safeguard the interest of public. Also, it is important that any survey should never have any negative impact on respondents and they shouldn't be charged for participating in the survey as respondents are doing it voluntarily,” explained Shekar.

He said ESOMAR is working with various local associations in promoting the guidelines and international code of conduct to create awareness in the industry and safeguard people's interest.

Condemning the SpeakAsia fraud, he said that any professional or research company cannot ask or charge for joining the surveys and such practice is completely unethical, wrong and against the code of conduct of the market research industry.

“It's not just the money but also the time and efforts put by respondents needs to be addressed,” Shekar commented on other online scams where people are asked to join freely.

Beside the SpeakAsia fraud, there are other fraudulent firms too who are into such activities and their operations are under scrutiny and observation, said Shekar.