Free samples without surveys are the safest type of free samples for you to try to acquire online. All other types of free samples, including those with surveys, that require the payment of a shipping and handling fee and those that request too much personal information are suspect. The latter tend to be initiated by unscrupulous people, looking to scam those consumers who are relatively naive about the risks that come with surfing the web. They capitalize on the fact that many people are so enthralled by the idea of getting free gifts that they are likely to drop their guard and jump through hoops just for the sake of receiving them.
The lengths that many people will go to just to get a free sample are actually amazing. Some of them will gladly complete a 30-minute survey or more, thus using up all their break time or taking up time that they could have used to make more money. Often, the money they would have made during that 30-minute interval is worth more than the free sample. Yet other people pay a so-called shipping and handling fee that is actually worth more than the value of the product sample. In all honesty, this latter group of people would have been better off simply walking into a store and paying full price for the product.
There is something about the knowledge that a product is free that makes people set aside their general reservations and wariness. They seem willing to trust somebody about whom they know nothing just because that person offered them something that they perceive as a gift. Perhaps they see the person as their benefactor or protector, somebody that they can depend upon.
All of this is not too surprising when one actually thinks about it. We are, perhaps, sentimental creatures at heart. It only takes a simple gesture to make that apparent. This is not necessarily a flaw. After all, it is what makes it possible for two strangers to become friends or for people to practice acts of philanthropy and kindness towards other people that they have not met. But it is dangerous to allow this sentiment full sway over our minds or our actions to the degree that we make ourselves unnecessarily vulnerable to strangers.
Funnily enough, the lesson here is a tempered one: it is perfectly okay to interact with strangers and to even seek free samples from them. But this should be done reasonably and safely. In other words, consumers should limit themselves to the pursuit of free samples without surveys.