Over the weekend I got an email inviting me to participate in a survey. Now, I usually just toss these in the trash bin. This one caught my eye because it both appeared legitimate and it offered me compensation for my time in completing the survey. So I read on.

The email had every appearance as having been sent by my credit card provider. The graphics were very good. The "From:" and "Reply to:" addresses looked right. The URL for the survey even looked on the up and up.

The email told me the survey would take 5 minutes or less and that I would be compensated via a credit to my card account when I completed the survey. I was born at night; but it wasn't last night. I smelled a scam.

You already know I no longer use Windows on my PC. I've made the switch to ubuntu Linux. I felt reasonably secure that whatever lay on the other end of that link was not targeted at my browser or my operating system. Had I been running Windows I would not have taken the risk. I clicked the link.

I ended up at a legitimate looking site with a passable, though crude form asking me several uninteresting user experience type questions having to do with my credit card. I figured those fill-in-the-blank questions were there for two purposes: To get the user "invested" in the process and to push the hook below the fold.

By invested, I mean the survey was configured such that I'd need to type answers to the questions, rather than click buttons and check boxes. I would have to do a little work to earn my compensation. The "survey" designers knew that the doing of this work would make me "invested" in the process and therefore less likely to give up later when he set the hook.

And the hook was the method for receiving my compensation. Scrolling down past the bogus questions were input fields for my name, credit card number and expiration information. Bingo! Scam! You're busted!

Let's think about this for a minute... Why would my bank want to survey me? They already know exactly when and where I shop and what products I buy when I shop. What more could I possibly tell them that would be of any value? Not only that but who has ever heard of a bank giving away money? Who has ever heard of a credit card company taking an interest in their customers?

They couldn't care less about my "user experiences" and they certainly wouldn't pay me to find out about them if they did.

Ironically, poor customer service and a near complete disregard for customers actually provides a thin layer of protection for customers aware enough to realize it.