Amazon Mechanical Turk, familiarly known as MTurk, is an online marketplace where individuals called “Workers” perform small tasks called “Human Intelligence Tasks,” HITs, for pay. One of the best online platforms where businesses can get work done that no computer can do. But real or a scam? Well, let’s dig a little deeper and know.
What is Amazon Mechanical Turk?
MTurk is an interface where businesses can source tasks from individuals who are capable of completing tasks by making judgments that a human would use. This can range from simple entry of data to more complex efforts like audio transcriptions and image classifications. The worker is given the power of choice since they determine what HITs they want to accomplish, and for each HIT completed, they are paid a very small amount.
How Does MTurk Work?
Businesses Post HITs: Businesses post HITs on MTurk, specifying the task, the required qualifications, and the pay.
Workers Accept HITs: Workers browse through available HITs and accept those for which they are qualified and interested.
Workers Complete HITs: Once the worker accepts a HIT from a business, the worker has to complete the tasks as the business would have instructed.
Businesses Accept or Reject HITs: Once the employee has completed his work, it is sent to the business for review. If the business accepts the employee’s work, they will pay him; otherwise, they will reject it if the work didn’t meet their standards.
Is MTurk Real?
Well, MTurk does indeed exist. It has been around for over a decade and is actually owned by Amazon. There are millions of people who all over the globe rely on MTurk as a source of extra income. The number of success stories is numerous while people who have supplemented their full-time work with MTurk or even made money this way full time exist.
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To convince you that MTurk does exist, I prepared a video in which I will show you how to sign up to create an account and browse the list of available HITs. It shall also depict some success stories of the MTurk workers.
Is MTurk Legitimate?
Though MTurk is completely legitimate, there are dangers on the site. Some businesses may give very low wages for HITs or may deny approving your work. Additionally, there are scam artists trying to dupe workers into completing tasks so they don’t get paid.
Scam prevention
Here’s how you can protect yourself from these dangers:
It is also important to know about the business posting the HIT and, prior to doing the HIT, to review reviews and ratings from other workers.
Read through the HIT instructions carefully: Before you start working on a HIT, take your time reading through instructions provided for that HIT. If you’re unsure about something, get it cleared from the requester.
Be Careful of Scams That Are Too Good to Be True: Most of the scams are scams that pay very high money for a simple task.
Scam Alert: Report any scam you encounter through MTurk.
Amazon Mechanical Turk is a real and a legitimate service which offers the possibility of making more money than a current income of an individual. Despite the risks involved, following the advice above, those dangers can be minimized and one can be assured to take advantage of the services that MTurk offers.