consumer-opinion.org (paid survey scam)

Since 14th February, 2008, I've been receiving an irritating barrage of spam (up to six per day) inviting me to get paid for participating in online surveys. Here's my earliest sample.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted (random name and address)]
Date: 14 Feb 2008 XX:XX
Subject: additional job earnings available
To: Ideceive <ideceive@gmail.com>

Hi,

Are you interested in getting paid by major online retailers for completing
simple online surveys, participating in focus groups and to watch movie
trailers?
All you need is a little time and willingness to voice your honest opinion.
Our organization offers competitive remuneration for participating in simple
on-line surveys and forum discussion groups. What we offer is work from the
comfort of your own computer, determine your working time, express your
opinion freely about different kinds of products and services, and be paid
well.

If you'd like to become one of our highly valued survey takers, please
e-mail me back at maximilianwaytt@gmail.com and we will send you additional information.

Best regards,
Katie Anderson
HR

The contact address has varied continuously, but it has always been a gmail address. I suspect that they forward their various Gmail accounts to some other address which acts as an autoresponder, although they may possibly be using the built-in Gmail autoresponder. If you write away to one of the contact addresses (and the Gmail team hasn't whacked it yet), you get a response back like the following.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CONSUMER-OPINION.ORG <april@consumer-opinion.org>
Date: 3 Mar 2008 XX:XX
Subject: RE:RE: part-time job available
To: ideceive@gmail.com

Hi,
Thank you very much for your interest in the online survey jobs we offer.
For more information please go to our website:
http://www.Consumer-Opinion.org.
If you have any additional questions please fill in the form on our website or email info@Consumer-Opinion.org.
I look forward to doing business with you.
Best regards,
April Hofmann
http://www.Consumer-Opinion.org

Note that the domain "comsumer-opinion.org" was registered shortly after the spam run commenced (within 24 hours).

Domain ID:D151346870-LROR
Domain Name:CONSUMER-OPINION.ORG
Created On:14-Feb-2008 16:24:35 UTC
Last Updated On:15-Feb-2008 08:48:05 UTC
Expiration Date:14-Feb-2009 16:24:35 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R39-LROR)
Registrant ID:c8c3142d2e6cbb3e
Registrant Name:PATRICK LAWRENCE
Registrant Email:consopi@gmail.com
Name Server:NS19.SUPERHOSTING.BG
Name Server:NS20.SUPERHOSTING.BG

Paid survey scams are old news. The website itself does not offer you a job: it invites you to pay money in order to find out where these paid surveys are. There's no guarantee whatsoever that you will be able to make any money at all out of this, although they make big claims about the average payment that their members receive. The so-called "surveys" usually involve signing up for a trial of some kind of product, and may expose you to further expense. Your payment goes through ClickBank, so this is not an attempt to phish for credit card details -- it's just an attempt to get a thirty dollar payment out of any sucker willing to take the bait.

I don't usually report on this kind of scam, but these guys have been absolutely clamoring for my attention with their spam, so here you go. In my opinion, "comsumer-opinion.org" is just another scam which advertises by spamming and wilfully misrepresents ("lies about") the nature of its product. If you give these guys money, you are funding people who generate spam, and it's likely that you'll get nothing of value in return. Also, due to substantial unique overlap in content, I believe that "consumer-opinion.org" is a repackaged version of the older "planet-surveys.com". Compare the consumer opinion FAQ with the planet surveys FAQ, and look for overlapping questions and answers.

   Domain Name: PLANET-SURVEYS.COM
   Registrar: ENOM, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.enom.com
   Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
   Name Server: DNS1.NAME-SERVICES.COM
   Name Server: DNS2.NAME-SERVICES.COM
   Name Server: DNS3.NAME-SERVICES.COM
   Name Server: DNS4.NAME-SERVICES.COM
   Name Server: DNS5.NAME-SERVICES.COM
   Updated Date: 04-oct-2007
   Creation Date: 04-oct-2007
   Expiration Date: 04-oct-2008