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Haven't had ID theft , but have had accounts hacked a couple of times , but the site caught it as the IP wasn't mine and came from outside the US. But , those were straight up account hacks. They had nothing to do with the standard demographics data the surveys request. That is why when I got the survey from Cornell with the "mother's maiden name" request , I at first just quit it and the next time , enter a bogus one. (Made no difference - it failed anyway.) That is a common account access question. If I get requests for info that a survey should not have a need for , I get out right away.

Dawn, thank you for your comments. The ones with the tiny grids I've been x'ng out of. They hurt my eyes and I'm just sick of them. There are some companies, like CINT or Ipsos I immediately click out of. I never qualify. I'm beginning to think I'd have a better chance of seeing Bigfoot or a giant UFO than qualifying for some of these surveys.

Attack.

Shotgun.

I have been playing the Poll Predictor guess-o-matic from quite some time. Its probable, I've made 20,000+ entries. I've done it so many times, I've seen some question 5 times or more. I kinda like the studying the questions and trying to figure out what a good answer maybe. However, i've won a whole lot of Nothing. YMMV. Do it if you like that diversion but don't waste your points from surveys on these games of chance.

Thanks for all your replies. Yeah, there have been a few data breaches of my personal information. My Target card and Capital One card are a few I can think of off the top of my head. Way back in the day, when I first joined the Navy, I had to fill out a lengthy form to get a top secret security clearance. Apparently that information was digitized and put out on the internet. Guess what? Someone hacked into that and got all kinds of personal information on millions of service members. I got a letter from Office of Personnel Management a few years back. Got free credit monitoring for a couple of years off of that. Dimefynder, yes, I remember hearing about the social security number breach. That kind of stuff scares the crap out of me. I think for the unemployment thing, they just needed my name and address. I have changed my passwords, and am hoping with all I’ve done, that will contain things. I’m still on the fence on continuing to do surveys though. Lunastargazer, I experienced something similar to what you experienced with getting weird phone calls. I used to give my landline number, now I no longer do that. I give my cell phone number, as I can simply block the number. I hate those phone hackers. It seems no matter how careful we are, something will happen sooner or later. I’m trying to limit buying stuff online too, as I think many of those sites are easily hacked.

Bombs

I agree makes me wonder how long they will be around .

Ditto. I only come here if there is something new posted.

WAR

Panic

Sorry to hear that, Dawn. Were you able to get information regarding what level of your info was used to open the account? The survey info we give out isn't usually enough for hackers to do that with. They are usually stuck sending us spam e-mails with the hopes that we will fall for a phony phishing message from a seemingly legit company. Amazon has a nastily realistic-looking one mimicking it going around that can trick people into giving their log-in info., for example. I don't know if you knew this, but a few years ago, a massive breach occurred where the Social Security numbers of 140,000,000 Americans got stolen. That's most people who are working, or used to. Other breaches have exposed our driver's license numbers, medical records, etc. It's pretty much all out there. Still helps to change passwords, though. And embrace double authentication, or demand it from all data holders. But we should all expect fake accounts to be opened in our names, at some point, even if only a fraction of us ever experience that. I'm happy that you are taking all the right steps, even if that's all you can do for now. I'm skeptical of even LifeLock now; not that they haven't helped or protected people. But they are not perfect, either. I'm lucky so far. Someone in a Dallas hotel room once charged a $4.00 mini-bar soda or bottled water to my old Citicard, but the company dealt with it immediately.

I haven’t done any insulting or mudslinging. All I did was reply to what was an inflammatory ridiculous post. I am not a child and certainly do not need a time out. I will not be coming back to this thread.

I've been doing surveys for over 25 years & I'm finding it lately that I'll just shut down a survey I've started when I start seeing multiple pages across the grids..I'm not doing those anymore..plus I'm starting to look at the points per survey to see if it's even worth the time to complete..I love doing Pinecone surveys here in Canada..I've been with them for over 10 years & I always get $5 per survey to complete...& they're always interesting...Toluna pisses me off the most...like 2500 points for a 35 min survey which works out to be pennies...Though right now alot of survey sites that I'm on have slowed down the number of surveys due to Covid-19...so here's hoping they get back up to speed & more variety soon

Thank you everyone for your answers. I'm going to start taking breaks. Just one day or two a week. I like the gift cards and the perks, but some of these surveys can be so mind numbing. Good article, Admin. Thank you.

Dawn, although I've never gotten my SS number hacked from surveys, I've had some weird things on my phone. If I give my real phone number on surveys I get weird calls for days. They either hang up or leave some recording that I need to call them back. I know they're all scams. OTOH, I was in Harbor Freight a few weeks ago. They always ask for a phone number and email before they process your sale. Reminds of Radio Shack. It was crowded so I said ok. I get a text on my phone an hour later that my password for my ATT account changed and it wasn't me to contact them. So I did. That was no coincidence. I only give out my google voice number now. When I log into my GV account I get 5-10 calls a day. No messages.