Getting paid to surf is basically a pyramid scheme hiding as a multi-level marketing scheme and many are outright scams designed to get you to part with your money. They are currently the number one target of the Federal Trade Commission.

There are dozens of programs that purport to pay you just for surfing the internet. Some of the programmes actually pay money, in exchange for having their messages on your screen while you are using the Internet. The amount per hour is small (usually much less than your phone costs if your internet use is from home), but there are ways to multiply the amount you receive by referring other people to your favourite scheme. However, be careful –in many cases – what they say can be very misleading. Others are outright scams.

The most popular scam is one where they ask you to deposit money to buy credits. You can surf so many times for each credit and they promise that you will make back 100% to as much as 1200% of the cost of the credit in as little as a month.

You start with a small amount of money and it pays off. Then you put up a larger amount of money and the company suddenly disappears.

A very savvy web guy who works with us sometimes got into one of these programs. He started with $35 and doubled his money in about 10 days. Then he put up $50 and this time it took about 16 days to double his money, but he was impressed, so he put up the “maximum investment” of $1,600 and a few days later got an email that the payment service was refusing to pay. Within a few days the government has shut the company down and his $1,600 was gone.

We simply cannot recommend any of these services and suggest you avoid them. If you insist I suggest you type “paid to surf” into Google and you will get ads for several of the programs –but Cavaet Emptor !!!–That’s Latin for Buyer Beware!