Get Paid to Read Email: Scam or Legit?

You have probably seen the ads for email reading programs. They claim that you can get rich by simply reading a few emails each day and hundreds of thousands of people sign up for these programs. Exactly how legit are these businesses? Can you really earn money by just reading an email or two?

The way email reading services work is that they offer clients a certain number of hits to their websites. The clients pay for this service and the site then turns around and pays people like you to receive emails which must be opened and have a specific link clicked on in order to qualify. You usually have to stay on the advertiser’s site for 30-60 seconds before your hit is counted and you will be paid.

In general, reading and clicking an email is not a high paid job. You end up getting somewhere between half a cent and 3 cents per email that you open, if you perform the requested action.

Even if you are willing to work for such low pay, you need to be aware that many of these websites are not as great as they might look at first glance. Apart from sending you an email or two a day, they are earning from you and all their other “workers” by doing less ethical things like sell your personal information and email address to other companies. Some of these sites also have spyware which will install itself into your computer and gather vital information like bank account numbers, passwords and any other useful and confidential content that you have stored on your hard drive.

Other email programs are set up to lure people in, but they never actually pay. So they are receiving money for all the hits they send to their clients, but not paying out to their workers. It is a nasty way to do business, but these sites tend to draw so many people that they will never actually pay, that they just keep going! By promising to pay $1 per referral (or more), they ensure that people continue to reel in fresh meat so they will never lack for workers.

However, it is possible to find decent email reading websites that will not do you damage or steal your personal information and that will truly pay you when they say they will. The best way to find these is to ask people. Avoid anyone who gives you a referral URL since their opinion will be biased. You should also ask to see proof of payment. This just means that the person commenting will send you a screen shot of his or her Paypal account with the amount credited and the name of the business paying, or a photo of a check if that is how the email program pays.

A pay to read email program that is worth checking out is one that pays and has a clear privacy policy which states your information will not be used by anyone except them, and for job-related purposes only. They should also be able to provide proof of payment for their workers.