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Is Amazon Mechanical Turk a Scam?

Amazon Mechanical Turk May not be for Everyone
I’ve heard a lot of things about Amazon Mechanical Turk being a scam so I decided to check it out myself. I wanted to provide an honest review of the program.

What is Amazon Turk?

Put simply, Amazon Turk is a largely growing market place for work which requires human intelligence. Some of the task on Amazon Turk are writing product descriptions, transcribing audio files and videos, doing research for companies, selecting objects from pictures or videos, or searching data details. The entire site is based solely on marketers needing research they believe only a human can do.

When a company or developer needs tasks done, they can assess Amazon Turk’s market place and create a HIT (Human Intelligence Tasks). These HITs pay mostly in pennies but can add up over time, and take hardly any time to complete.

Is Amazon Turk a Scam?

This can only be answered in two parts; the first part being Amazon Turk, and the second being the company or developer. Let’s take a look at both of them in retrospect.

Amazon Turk does exactly what it says it will do; it provides work from the companies or developers, sends them out to the worker, and pays the worker when the company or developer approves the work. Amazon Turk is not a scam.

Now, just because Amazon Turk is not a scam, doesn’t mean that there aren’t companies or developers who use it to scam people. Let me explain. In order for a worker to gain any money, the company or developer must approve the work. There are a few bad apples which use the company to get work done with no intentions of paying the worker. Amazon Turk does its best to get rid of these companies and developers before they can cause any more damage.

How to Avoid Scammers on Amazon Turk

1.       If an HIT ask for your name, address, or credit card information, report it to Amazon Turk and avoid them. It is policy for no one to ask this vital information from the workers.

2.       Jobs that offer high pay for less work should also be avoided. A company is not going to offer you a large amount when they can get the same work from another worker for less.

3.       There are forums dedicated to Amazon Turk. These forums help workers and can teach you methods on developing a better profile, taking test, scammers, and keeps you up to date on new developments with Amazon Turk.

4.       The Turkopticon toolbar can help you determine if someone might be a scammer since it will show you reviews by other Mechanical Turk workers. Here you can see if someone rejected a MTurk HIT without good reason.

The Possibilities of Earning with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

From everything I have seen on the site, the pay is low – often from 1 cent to $5. Most of these task is fairly quick to do, and pay can add up quickly.

Read the instructions carefully. If you do not follow the instructions exactly as they say, you take the chance of not getting paid. The HIT’s are precise in what they want the worker to do.

Try to finish any task that you start. Mechanical Turk keeps track of HIT’s you take and the ones you complete. No finishing a HIT can result in a worker only getting lower paid HITs. Others can see your profile and rating.

Developing your typing skills is a must. HITs are timed and need to be completely as quickly as possible. The faster you can move through the HITs; the more money you can make.

Some hits require you to take a usability test. This test is important and can help you earn more by opening up other hits that pay higher. The usability test doesn’t take long and can be worth it.

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk does pay, but not enough for someone to live comfortably. There have been reports of users making upwards of $10 an hour but this seems hard to accomplish. Although Amazon Turk is a legitimate site, it would be almost impossible for anyone to earn a substantial amount to replace even a part-time job.

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is something people tend to do in their spare time, such as watching tv, or when they are taking a break from something else.


If you are looking for ways to make a full-time income from home, there are definitely better options available. 
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