Scam check
Is this work-from-home offer a scam? An 8-signal check
Run any paid-task, survey or 'remote job' offer through eight questions. The signals come from real rulings and platform policies, not from opinion. We answer the same eight questions about ourselves, in public.
Offer check
Answer about the offer in front of you. Each question maps to a rule someone has been punished for breaking.
Does it ask you to pay anything — a fee, a starter kit, 'training', a deposit?
Genuine research platforms never charge participants.
Does it quote a sum you will make — 'up to' a figure, a daily amount, a 'guaranteed' income?
The ASA has ruled unsupported 'up to' daily claims misleading; the FTC treats 'up to' as 'likely'.
Can you find a company name and a postal address on the site?
Look in the footer or a Legal page. A blank is a warning; an invented one is worse.
Is pay made by a normal method — bank transfer or PayPal — not gift cards or crypto?
Gift cards and crypto are the two payment methods scammers prefer, because they cannot be reversed.
Does it say plainly that you are self-employed and can stop at any time?
UK rules require commission-style or self-employed status to be made clear.
Is there a privacy policy that says what data they collect and why?
Not a link that goes nowhere — an actual page.
Does it pressure you — countdowns, 'only a few places left', reply within the hour?
Real research has deadlines; it does not have fake scarcity.
Did they ask for ID documents, bank logins or card details before you agreed to anything?
ID may be needed later for some tasks. Bank logins are never needed.
Your result
Answer the eight questions
Your lamps fill in as you go. Green means the answer matches what honest platforms do.
How Fieldnote answers the same eight
8 / 8Check every line against this site. If we fail one, tell us and we will fix it or explain it.
- 1. Nothing to pay at any step — not now, not later, not for 'training'.
- 2. We publish other platforms' rates with sources. We quote none of our own.
- 3. Company details live on the Legal page. Where a field says 'to be completed', we show the gap rather than invent a name.
- 4. Bank transfer or PayPal after a task is approved. Never gift cards, never crypto.
- 5. Self-employed, task by task, stop whenever you like — spelled out on the Tax & status page.
- 6. Privacy policy linked in the footer of every page, with what we collect and why.
- 7. No countdowns, no counters, no 'last places'. Anywhere.
- 8. We ask for ID only after you accept a task that needs it. We never ask for bank logins or card details.
Five patterns regulators have already ruled on
You do not need to guess. These have been tested in front of the ASA, the FTC or Google's policy team.
- 'Up to' with nothing behind it — The ASA found a home-working site's 'up to' daily figure misleading because it could not show a single user had achieved it. The FTC settled a US 'up to' hourly-rate case for millions on the same logic.
- Pay to start — Any fee, kit or deposit puts an offer into 'business opportunity' territory in the US and out of every genuine research platform's playbook.
- Guaranteed or instant — Google Ads requires a refund policy behind any guarantee and bars 'get rich quick' framing outright. Honest platforms cannot guarantee task volume, so they do not.
- Big-earner testimonials — US guidance says atypical earnings stories are deceptive unless typical results are shown just as clearly. Most sites cannot show typical results, so the stories stay.
- Job language for task work — Calling self-employed, task-by-task work a 'job' or 'salary' has been ruled misleading in the UK when the status was not made clear.
Where to report a bad offer
Reporting takes five minutes and is the only thing that gets a scam taken down.
- Action Fraud (UK police)
For anything involving money you have paid or details you have handed over.
- Advertising Standards Authority
For misleading ads or websites, including earnings claims you think are unsupported.
- Citizens Advice — scams
Plain-English help on what to do next, and how to get money back.
Seen the market. Now ask us anything.
One message opens a chat with a person. Nothing to pay, no account to create, and you can leave at 'hello'.