Vindale Research

I received this in my Spam box today. 

From: Vindale Research info@todayexpress.net

Subject: HELP WANTED - REVIEWERS NEEDED - GET UP TO $75 PER

Since I haven't heard from them before, I decided to see what's going-on and whether this is just another scam.

Well, they don't appear to be a deliberate fraud. But, the company's online reputation is rather tainted and I would advise against anyone signing-up for a membership.

First, I tried to do an IP trace of the email itself and discovered that the IP cannot be traced to its point of origin. Looks like someone is trying to hide.

Second, researching the company itself, I learned that their website can be found at vindale.com and their contact information is

Vindale Research
243 Fifth Avenue, Suite 541
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: 1-855-VINDALE (846-3253)
Fax: 1-866-841-3898

The given address does not appear to be their physical address, but seems to be a mailbox at the UPS Store there. So, the "suite number" is actually their mailbox number. So, if you ever wanted to have legal documents served on them for some reason, you'd be out of luck.

Vindale is making use of social networking sites and you can visit them on Facebook and Twitter.

Vindale Research is a subsidiary by SayForExample, Inc.which also is the parent company of Paid Samples (website PaidSamples.com is offline) Survey 4 Profit (website Survey4Profit.com) and is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, though the BBB has a review of the company and has given them a C+ rating. I found it rather disturbing that there have so far been 22 complaints filed against SayForExample, Inc in the last year.

Nathanael "Nate" Ehrich is the Founder and CEO of SayForExamle, Inc.

Next, I Googled "Vindale Research" and found complaints against this company going back to 2008:

• Consumer Affairs Complaints & Reviews: Vindale Research
• Beware of Vindale Research Scam Paid Survey Site
• Is Vindale Research legit?
• Vindale Research Reviews: Legit or Scam?

However, a fairly balanced review that presents both the good and bad points of signing-up for Vindale Research can be found here. He did a particularly good job of examining how the company works and explains it very well. I read this on his review which totally convinced me to have nothing to do with these people

The catch, if it can be called that, lies in the “evaluation surveys” (more about that later). Here the company signs-up members for a number of product trials and then later on passes a part of its own commissions to these members. This is followed by the dispatching of some stock surveys, which gives off the impression that you’re giving out useful feedback.

Although this tactic is entirely legal, there’s no denying about its deceptiveness as it doesn’t conform to accepted market research methods. Similarly, the payouts advertised by the company are also smartly inflated.

For instance, as a member you might be offered a 10-day trial run at an internet dating site. Say you are charged $30 by the dating site for the given trial period and at the end of it, Vindale Research remunerates you $45. Now although you end up being paid only $15, the company says it paid you $45.

Vindale Research is not an outright scam. But, I don't like how they do business and will never sign-up for a membership.


Duane Browning