I just received an email about a google usability survey that says I will get $150 if I take it. Did anyone else get this email? A portion of the email is below. Does anyone find it a little fishy that they want you to download an applet for them to access your computer? or am I just paranoid? "At the start time of the study please be at your computer and near the telephone to receive the call from our usability researcher, Joe Karam, preferably a phone with a speaker phone option or headset for your comfort. A cell phone with a headset is fine as long as you have a proper workspace where you will not be distracted. You will be on the telephone for the duration of the 60 min study. At the start of the study you will be instructed to download an applet to your computer which will allow the researcher conducting the study to temporarily access your computer and observe your key and mouse strokes. You will need to have Windows 2000/XP installed on your current laptop or desktop with Internet Explorer web browsing enabled. Please let me know if you're not sure what this means or if you're unsure which browsers you have enabled on your personal computer. The software we use for remote screening sharing is called HelpAlert. A thin-client or "applet" is downloaded that simply contains a code that enables communication only when we're connected. After the session, the applet remains but nothing is installed and no local user information is recorded. The thin-client does not gather any of the user's files or information. "
Don't do that it is a scam. If you download that means hacker will get full control of your system Just ignore that mail.
Also, as a note though, the email is from a guy with an email address @google.com. There is also a link below to the website www.google.com/usability , which has a form that I had filled out a few months ago. I'm just a little nervous because anyone could have pasted in that url, and I thought it was a little weird that they wanted to access my computer.