A New Way to Phish: Survey Spam

Beware of Phishing Attacks via Surveys

Scammers Can Use Surveys to Steal Your Personal Information;
That Survey Invitation May be a Phishing Attack in Disguise

The Scammers just keep getting more creative, finding new, seemingly legitimate ways to steal and misuse your personal information.  Survey spam is one of the latest methods Spear Phishers are using to trap their victims.

Spear Phishing refers to a targeted e-mail attack.  Spear phishers send you personalized spam e-mail that usually appears to be from a trusted contact.  That e-mail is intended to trick you into taking an action that will open you to harm. A Spear Phishing attack may try to plant malware, steal your information, and/or trick you into revealing log-ins and passwords.  A Spear Phisher's intentions are never good.

As cyberspace wisens up, the Phishers find new ways to steal your information. One of these ways is through survey spam.

Folks love to participate in surveys.  Often, surveys contain a sweepstakes component to help entice users to take it. "Five survey  participants will be randomly chosen to receive a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate" is a common come-on.  Many companies use legitimate surveys for market research and quality assurances.

Poll and Survey Services: A Review (With Samples)

Create Polls and Surveys, for Blogs, Web Sites, Social Media, or Marketing Campaigns

This is the end of our series on Internet Quiz Services.  Folks love to take quizzes, and they can be great traffic-drivers. But many quiz hosting services do nothing but mine data, and their sketchy terms tell you little about how they will use the data they are mining. 

This series began by discussing the negatives of many quiz sites.  Then it went on to identify two quiz hosts who do not mine data: QuizRevolution and Polldaddy.  Earlier posts reviewed quiz creating and hosting services at these sites. Today, we end the series by looking at Polls and Surveys. Both Polldaddy and QuizRevolution offer poll and survey hosting, as well as tests.

Quizzes vs Tests vs Polls vs Surveys

At QuizRevolution, you can create surveys and quizzes. At Polldaddy, you can create quizzes, tests, surveys, and polls.  What are the differences between these?  Well, for all intents and purposes, a quiz and a test are the same thing.  Both offer a series of questions with right or wrong answers. Both are scored upon completion. A test or quiz usually assesses knowledge of a particular subject area.  On the Internet, however, quizzes tend to refer to silly, fun lists of questions, and they may or may not actually reflect knowledge or mastery.  Internet quizzes are more often centered around personality traits.  They may not be based on any sound theory at all.  On the Internet, tests tend to be more serious and more learning-focused.

A poll is a single question that asks one's opinion on something. It's generally multiple choice.  A survey, by contrast,  allows you to ask multiple questions across a wider range of question types.  It may include "scaled" questions, open-ended questions, and/or multiple choice. It may also collect demographic and/or personal information, such as name, sex, address, etc.  But there are no right or wrong answers, and no passing scores with a survey or poll.