I have recently beenn looking for ways to make money from home. Most
of the "survey" websites appear to be scams. However, the above
website appears to be genuine, and I can't find any reference to it
relating to a scam. They claim to pay 1% of your account balance per
day for looking at websites. I am thinking of investing AU$100. Could
a researcher look into this please!

Dear chasask,

There are certain indications that are usually typical for scams. In
the case of StudioTraffic.com, I have found a number of these
indications.

I. The lack of proper contact information
Reputable companies do not conceal their real address, phone and fax
numbers. Scam companies do this, and so does also StudioTraffic. Their
address is not listed anywhere on their website. I have checked for
the owner of their domain name, and the result is most suspicious. The
domain has been registered for StudioTraffic by a company named "Whois
Privacy Protection Service, Inc". This is one of the anonymizer
services spammers and scammers use to avoid being traced by their
victims. A reputable company just does not have any reason to hide
their face.

II. Questionable ways of advertising
I have searched the Usenet archives and found out that in numerous
cases, StudioTraffic has been advertised by persons who are
suspiciously enthusiastic about the service - and who have been
spamming various Newsgroups with similar advertisements for other
"make money fast", "make money by surfing the Web", "get paid for
surveys" services. I have no doubt that they are professional spammers
who regularly advertise obscure scam companies, using anonymous and
easily replacable Yahoo and Hotmail e-mail accounts. A reputable
company does not use such means of advertising their services.

III. Sign-up fee
As a general rule: If a company demands a sign-up fee and similar
payments for granting you the privilege of working for them, then it's
scam time. I have had a look at the FAQs - and there is not the
slightest guarantee that you will ever earn notable amounts of money
after having signed up with them. Basically, they use many words to
say: 'You give us money, and after that there is a slight chance but
no whatsoever guarantee that you will earn any money. You can give us
more money, but that won't change anything except that your account
status will have a more fancy name'. Or, as they say in their FAQ:
"Are payouts guaranteed at Studiotraffic? - We cannot guarantee
earnings..."

IV. Discrepancy between claims and reality
I have found virtually thousands of sites, forum postings and Usenet
postings that enthusiastically praise StudioTraffic - allegedly by
users, but the word choice looks amazingly similar in many cases, down
to identical phrases. Many included magniloquent statements, along the
lines of the "phenomenal growth" of the service. But there are not
many postings of people who have actually earned noteworthy amounts,
although one should assume that the huge number of enthusiastic users
must be proud of their easy money and tell the world how much they
earned. Much advertising disguised as customer opinions, but very few
manifest cases of success - highly suspicious.

My conclusion: Be cautious. StudioTraffic demand money without
ensuring earnings, use questionable ways of advertising, and hide
their identitiy and location behind an anonymizing service. That is
not the behaviour of a respectable company. Even if they are
reputable, their behaviour disqualifies them. I advise against signing
up with them.

Regards,
Scriptor


Sources:

BLooD: "Start making money now :-)" (2004-09-29). <alt.free.money> via
Google Groups.
http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&selm=5XF6d.119743%24U04.45182%40fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk

Steven Choo: "Hi my friend, take a look at this" (2004-11-29).
<misc.taxes> via Google Groups.
http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&selm=c4ee7402.0411290844.38f317d9%40posting.google.com

Allwhois Domain Database
http://www.allwhois.com/cgi-bin/allwhois.cgi


Search terms used:
studiotraffic scam
http://groups.google.de/groups?q=studiotraffic%20scam&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&sa=N&tab=wg
author:weshop4you@yahoo.com
http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=author:weshop4you%40yahoo.com+
author:blood585@hotmail.com
http://groups.google.de/groups?q=author:blood585%40hotmail.com&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&filter=0
studiotraffic
http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=studiotraffic&btnG=Suche
"Whois Privacy Protection Service"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22Whois+Privacy+Protection+Service%22&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
"Whois Privacy Protection Service"
http://groups.google.de/groups?q=%22Whois%20Privacy%20Protection%20Service%22&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&sa=N&tab=wg
studiotraffic earned
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=studiotraffic+earned&btnG=Suche&meta=
studiotraffic
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=studiotraffic&btnG=Suche&meta=

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 29 Jul 2005 11:29 PDT

"I it isent supriseing that nawbies" ... very trustworthy, indeed.
Spammers and English othography - two worlds collide.

Scriptor

Thanks Scriptor - A very informative and well researched answer.

Hi,

I am a member of Stdio Traffic. Scriptor accused me of being a
profssional spammer and that Studio Traffic was a scam. Scriptor and
anyone else who thinks we are a scam why dont you come on over to
studio traffic and chat to us on the forums then you will find out
that we are for real and that Scriptor is just spreading his own
opinion on Studio Traffic. We have over 60,000 members all of who are
happy to invest with us.

Someone sent me a link to this page in the process of deciding whether
or not to join StudioTraffic. After reading the Answer given here, I
have to say that I believe Scriptor has done a disservice to the
person who asked the question and to anyone else who might be reading
this.

I. The lack of proper contact information
This program, as far as I know, has no central headquarters. It is
administered by people all over the world. It is not a business
operating out of one office. This is nothing new on the Internet, and
not at all unusual. There are several very reputable companies
operating like this. I would not blame the owner of this program one
bit if he decided that he did not want to reveal his personal address
and contact info. From the EPIC website
http://www.epic.org/privacy/whois/, one can read the following:
"Domain name registrants in the .com/.org/.net top-level domains
consist of businesses; individuals; media organizations; non-profit
groups; public interest organizations; political organization;
religious organizations; support groups; and so on (e.g. EPIC is a
domain name registrant for "epic.org"). Domain name registrants share
their services, ideas, views, activities, and more by way of websites,
email, newsgroups, and other Internet media. While some domain name
registrants use the Internet to conduct fraud, other domain name
registrants have legitimate reasons to protect their identities (and
so their privacy and personal information) or to register domain names
anonymously. For example, different political, artistic and religious
groups around the world rely on the Internet to provide information
and express views while avoiding persecution - and concealing their
identity is crucial in this respect." It is IMPORTANT

Scriptor is a stupid and very ignorant. Studiotraffic is NOT A SCAM.
Studiopay has the office in New York. A real office. Most of company
already of 95% about eran more are scam, despite has the label o seal
"whois". Do you know that the last mounth paid to users a total
amounth of "250000$" when ST start at zero founds since the site
launched. How is it? It easy. The staff hard work everyday. Members
are happy. What site has more than 70000 members and are happy. Sux
the term "whois laws" Anyone know and very active forum about "earn
money from your conection"?
I am consered a fan Studiotraffic member. I think that the scriptor
text is very stupid and lammer.

THE MOST IMPORTANT IS STUDIOTRAFFIC WORKS AND PAY TO USERS. CURRENT
THE BEST AUTOSURF SITE AND PEHARPS THE BEST COMPANY WIN MONEY IN
INTERNET

... just browsing through, reading Q & A for fun.

I know a Shill when I see one, and this is one.

My 2¢

A friend and I are actually testing this right now.  
We're skeptical, but our primitive analysis showed studiotraffic to
have a hand up on the other programs that scream "scam".

Our site outlines why we're testing it, and what progress we've made.

http://tayshovel.tripod.com/studio/

If it's a failure, we'll be the first to say so.  We're hoping that in
the very least our site is a resource to those who ask this very
question: "Is it a scam".
...we're trying to solidify an answer.

As a user of Studiotraffic for over a year, and someone naturally
skeptical of any sort of money making scheme, I'll try to give a sane
and balanced perspective.

I am technically violating the terms there which say not to discuss
Studio Traffic outside their forums
http://www.studiotraffic.org/forum/ So I can't get too specific.

Anyway, since the site will give you a $10 account level free (not an
actual $10, but a starting balance to earn the 1% a day on) you can
start without paying a dime. If you "compound" these earnings and surf
every day, you could conceivably have a balance of $10000 in 2 1/2
years without ever risking a penny of your own money.  That level
would then earn you $100 a day, or about $3000 a month.

I requested a withdraw today (from a much more modest balance) and
received payment of $100 in about 12 hours. So in that sense, yes the
program works as advertised.

You need to read and understand the terms, you can never withdraw any
deposit you make, only the earnings from said deposits. Moreover,
those deposits disappear after 1 year. So you need to keep putting
your earnings back into the system in order to maintain and grow your
balance.

Ultimately it may reflect a Ponzi type scheme, that money coming out
comes from the current money being paid in. The site has been around
for over 1 1/2 years, which is a long time, relatively speaking. It
could shut down without warning though, and leave you with nothing but
a "Cannot Find Server" message.

In the meantime, it provides me a little extra mad money..  Some folks
report they are withdrawing a couple thousand bucks every month, so it
could make for a nice supplemental income in time, or right away with
a large enough investment. Just be sure you understand the risks, and
don't put in any more than you can afford to lose.. again, starting
with the free $10 is a viable option.

But for now at least, the program does pay. Should it ever stop.. 
Expect to hear in large numbers very vocally from those same people
spamming the hype for it now..  I'd disagree with Scriptor on the
point that the site itself is the spammer.. with a referral program in
place, many folks will do the spamming for them, and may get deleted
if caught and enough complaints come in.. But the site itself needs to
do little advertising.. such is the nature of the beast with MLM types
of things.

Give it a try, have fun, and caveot emptor!

To Will and the other skeptics:
After joining, I am sure you will be pleased with the outcome of your venture!
Will, I look forward to reading your updates!

I joined StudioTraffic at the end of September '04 with $200.
I have since taken my original investment out (I didn't want to lose
my money) I was scared just like everyone else.
Since then, I have had others sign up under me and I am currently
earning about $200/month, but that number is increasing every month!

A friend of mine got me started, and he is currently drawing
$6000/month. (That's right, six grand a month).

This isn't hearsay from a friend of a friend...I know him personally
and see him almost every day. He has gotten back WELL over his initial
investment and is doing quite well financially.

You don't HAVE to get others to sign up, but the extra money is nice.

To anyone that doubts the program, just throw twenty bucks in there
and give it a try for a few months. If you lose it, you haven't lost
more than a good dinner. But if you start drawing $100 a month, Don't
complain that you didn't start off with a larger investment!

Notice I'm not giving my referral number for Studio, so I have NOTHING
to gain here. Just sharing the knowledge of wealth with others.

Hi there everyone, what Scriptor had written are really professional
and it's about the same thing on my mind.

To the other guys: Yes, I do know Studio Traffic pays. But ultimately,
the point I want you people to know that their streams of revenue
comes from Ponzi strategy which is 'using new members investments to
pay old member 1% gains'. This is an illegal way of making money as a
form of investment by investment companies.

People say they've been around for 2 years which is 'long' and guess
what, the fact is ponzi scheme will be able to last for a very long
time up to 10 years as long as the growth is sustained.

There's a HYIP which pays 3% and it lasted for 2 years which is
primefund.com and finally ended sometime last month. All ponzis
eventually went out of business.

There's 2 things to take note here:

1. Identification - A legitimate / illegitimate company will / must at
least register with the federal government and PAY TAXES. Ask yourself
guys, 'Is it legal to make money and not paying any government taxes
at all?' Don't argue craps with me like whatever Roth IRA, Starker
Exchange Exemptions. All people will pay taxes.

2. Revenues - Please get real peeps, your 1% comes from the new member
ok. Don't  try to make another reason or believe that their revenue
comes from big companies advertising as written on their FAQs because
i've seen they tried very hard to sell advertisement space but
couldn't get. I repeat, they use new members investment to pay your 1%
everyday. DON'T THINK OR SAY there are other sources of revenue
because if there are, it couldn't be more possible that if it's not
from new member investment.

3. You will make money from ponzi and pyramid schemes eventhough they
are illegitimate as long as you survive more than 100 days.

My advice is don't put the money you cannot afford to lose and not to
invest too much on ponzis. Hope you guys find my comment truthful and
honest.

Cheers.

I have also started a review site to look into StudioTraffic in an
objective way, and although the research is ongoing (I have really
risked some $ in order to test it), my conclusions/etc. so far can be
read about at:

http://www.studioreview.dk

No hidding agenda or schemes to get you to refer me, I really try to
write an honest opinion there.. Well, check for yourself :)

I've used sites similar to studiotraffic.com. I haven't actually used
studiotraffic.com and why would I?. These sites server absolutely no
purpose. They provide absolutely no residual income. If you want to
make a life out of stareing at advertisements for pennies. Then do
what you must. The real question should be is something like this
worth your time? Typically on these sites to get that 1% they mention
you have look at around 40 to 50 different advertisments. These
advertisments revolve at around 20 secs each. Which means it'd take
about 16 minutes to view all and get your 1% for the day. With your
100 dollar amount put in. If you viewed all the ads every day. You'd
get about $27 bucks, after viewing ads for 8 hours. That equals out to
be about $0.27 per hour.

If you put a 1,000 in. You'd make about 300 dollars and that'd still
only equal out to be about 8 bucks per hour. Now if you put 10,000 of
your hard earned dollars in, you'd make $3,000 a month. I wonder how
many people would actually put $10,000 with a company they no nothing
about, which is paying them to look at advertisments. I doubt if
there's any persons on there who has that much in.

The truth is, the person who's making the money is the person who runs
the site. If your seriously looking to make income online. There are
other better ways to do so, which have higher returns with less money
and you don't have to spend 8 hours a month looking at crap.

Gary
moneytheory.com

I've made a homepage that reviews studiotraffic - both the negative
and positive aspects.

http://www.studioexamination.com/

Studio Traffic is a ponzi scam and it is a federal crime to invest in
them.  Don't believe the cheerleaders that deffend studio traffic. 
You have to understand how these ponzies work.  Your deposits are
those cheerleaders withdrawals.  The ponzi cheerleaders have to keep
promoting this scam to others or at least keep the reputation clean
out there by lying so you, the person reading this go a put your money
in so they can cash it out.  Don't get into problems with the law or
the IRS!  YOu will be laundering money and can go to prison for a long
time as this is a federal crime.

In the url I will give you below, you will find more information about
this scam (in scam.com), LOTS OF IT! The thieve at studio traffic
recently scammed millions of dollars from US citizens.  They just
blocked those members from surfing and from earning and never gave
their money back.  Don't believe the cheerleaders if they tell you
otherwise.  They are pure liars, they need your money remember always
that.

As I was saying, nobody was investing in the ponzi because it is
illegal.  They were short on money to pay the cheerleaders above so
they scammed thousands of US citizens of their money.  Now, the ponzi
is dead.  It is not going anywhere.  Site is live but careful, they
will take your money but won't pay you!  Remember, stay away from that
ponzi scam!  It is a federal offense to invest in them!  Your deposits
are somebody else's withdrawals!  All they do is pass money from hand
to hand while they play with the available balance!  The owners buy
cars, mansions as they have always money coming in from suckers.  At
the end when they have millions to process, they just run away with it
stealing your money!

http://www.scam.com/search.php?searchid=382292

and here in google:

://www.google.com/search?q=studio+traffic+scam&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official