Is Protypers even worth your time and energy? Is Protypers legit? Or is this just going to be another waste-of-time scam that will end up leaving you disappointed at the end of the day?
On the website they claim it's the perfect job for stay at home moms, parents that need extra income, students and people in between jobs, and so on... but is it really? And can you really earn up to $250/mo like they say you can?
In this review I'll be going over all you need to know--what exactly Protypers is and what you will be doing if you join, how much money you can REALISTICALLY make, complaints and more.
Enjoy...
What Is Protypers?
- Name: Protypers
- Website: protypers.com
- Best for: People who want to earn very little money for their time
- Recommended?: No
Overview
After seeing the name you may think that ProTypers has to do with freelance writing of some kind, but you would be wrong to think that. ProTypers is a data entry service that works on converting images to text, which is something that AI still can't do.
On the website they talk about helping out with neural network developers that work to help the visually impaired, but if you join you will soon find out that it's all about solving what are called CAPTCHAs.
CAPTCHAs are those little things that you will sometimes see on websites which verify you are a real person and not a robot. They often consist of some sort of distorted text that you have to enter into a box.
The purpose is to deter spam... so that spammers can't have robots flood forums over and over again.
Eventually AI (artificial intelligence) will likely be able to solve these... which means people will no longer be needed to solve them and they will be useless... since they will no longer distinguish humans from machines.
Company Background
Protypers is actually a conglomerate of data entry specialists, which also includes the website Megatypers. If you've ever come across Megatypers you probably could figure this out due to their identical layout...
*The only difference on their homepage is a few word changes for the most part.
As for information on the company, there isn't much to say. They are not registered with the BBB or anything like that and after looking more into the website (domain) itself I came up short.
As you can see, much of the company information is hidden for privacy reasons...
Source: ScamAdviser
The website was created back in 2011, making it pretty old and established... a good sign but I wish I could find out more.
Is Protypers a Scam?
I don't have any hard proof that Protypers is a scam, HOWEVER, I do have some serious concerns and will not really be recommending this opportunity to my readers, although I can see why some people are doing this.
Besides this being a horrible earning opportunity, you likely are helping to creating an opportunity for spammers to spam even more... which might be confusing because CAPTCHAs are supposed to deter spam in the first place, but you will see what I mean in a bit.
How Protypers Works
Signup Process
The first step is obviously to signup, which is free to do and pretty simple.
All you have to do is provide your email address, create a password, provide your name, choose how you want to get paid and that is that...
You will then receive a confirmation link via email that you will have to click to activate your account.
Doing The Work
This is pretty straightforward. When you go to the "Start Working" tab you will be given a captcha to solve... and this is what it's all about.
After logging into your account you will see something like this. If on a desktop computer, you will see all of the available menu options on the left...
In the screenshot above I went to the "Start Working" tab and as you can see I was given a captcha to solve.
There will be a timer running above the captcha. You will have to enter it within that time period, which will be 15 seconds. And if not, you will be given this message:
*Note: If you have slow internet connection then you are pretty much screwed. I've tried this in a coffee shop with poor WIFI and because of this the countdown timer was at around only 4 seconds left after it was finally done loading the captcha... which means I had no chance of completing it.
Boostpacks - You can buy what are called "boostpacks" which allow you to solve more captchas faster... and earn more. You can also enable auto-boostpacks which means you will constantly be buying boostpacks once one runs out.
Why do you need boostpacks?
The reason is because they ensure you will get captchas to solve. There are only so many captchas available at any given time, and when there are a lot of users on ProTyper solving captchas, you might have some trouble getting them... which is why you may want to consider boostpacks.
The cost of these will vary depending on the market.
*You will pay for these with your Protypers balance. So you will need to already have a balance to start buying them.
Smart Captchas - If you go into the Profile and Payments tab you will be able to enable what are called "smart captchas", which are captchas that make sense, rather than just a bunch of random letters. Enabling this feature is definitely recommended for anyone who speaks decent English because it will allow you to solve captchas much faster and without so much difficulty.
Puzzle Captchas - Google uses these a lot. Usually they are some image that is divided into squares and you have to choose squares that contain certain elements, such as cars, storefronts, etc. These pay better than normal captchas.
The "Typer Solver" Program - This is a desktop application that Protypers provides that you can download to get more captchas to solve faster and to get more higher paying ones, such as the Smart Captchas and Puzzle Captchas mentioned above.
You can download this and use it without logging into the website to solve captchas as you normally would. And if you do use this, you will earn 150% extra for the smart captchas and puzzle captchas that you solve.
The payments will stay the same no matter which you use. Using the TyperSolver will add to your normal balance.
TyperDraw - If you go to the Lottery tab over on the left-had side of the page (if on a desktop computer) you will see what is called "TyperDraw", which is a little lottery they hold.
You will be able to buy tickets and have the potential to win small amounts of money. As you can see below in this example, the ticket for this draw costs $0.09 and the prize is $16.
Getting Paid
You will accumulate what are called "TyperCredits" and "TyperPoints". This is there own little digital currency system.
TyperPoints - In order to get paid you will need at least 50 TyperPoints--and in order to earn 1 TyperPoint you will need to solve at least 500 captchas per day.
Each TyperPoint is worth just $0.01.
TyperCredits - These are worth the same amount as real dollars. 1 TyperCredit = $1. When they are in your account they are TyperCredits, but when you cash-out of course you get real money.
The withdrawal options available are PayPal, Western Union, Perfect Money, WebMoney, and even Bitcoin and Litecoin. However, this might vary depending on where you live, because the only options I had available to me were
- Bitcoin - Transaction fee fluctuates
- Western Union - Need a $100 minimum balance before you can withdrawal - 14-20% fee
- PayPal - Need $3 minimum to withdrawal and there will be a 2-10% fee
They also state that they pay via Debit cards, bank checks and others, but I guess this might depend on your location because not all of these options were available to me.
PayPal is by far the best option if it is available to you. You will be able to cash out without much money and the fee is usually low. Bitcoin is good too, if you are into this sort of thing.
I know that if your payment option is PayPal you will be able to get paid every Monday. I'm not sure if this is the same for other payment options though.
How much money can you realistically make?
The pay rates per 1000 captchas that you solve are shown in this table...
They range from $0.50 - $0.70 per 1000 images.
Each hour of the day the rate will change. Above you can see that there are 24 different boxes, each one assigned to a different hour of a 24 hour period. This was confusing to me at first, but it makes sense now.
I imagine the rates are higher when there are less people working... because they need to incentivize people more to solve captchas for them.
Sorry to Disappoint, But the Pay Is Horrifically Low
Let's do the math and break this down so you can get a realistic look at how much you can actually make here.
Let's say that you enable 'auto-boostpacks' so that as you are working you are constantly running on a boostpack. This means you will be able to solve "up to 800 images per hour".
If you are solving 800 captchas per hour, this means you you are solving about 13 a minute!... which means you are solving a captcha nearly every 4 seconds!
Ya, they don't require you to have any special skills, but if you want to maximize the potential here you are going to need to be a fast typer.
But anyways... doing 800 captchas per hour means you are working at an absolutely ridiculous pace... you are working at lightspeed, and will need an equally fast internet connection for this to even be possible (unless you have downloaded TyperSolver).
And how much will you make from this insane amount of captcha solving... well... the max payout per 1,000 captchas is $0.70 and if you do only 800 that means you will make only $0.58.
$0.58 per hour of work... pretty darn crappy. Some might call it slavery.
Even if you are using TyperSolver (the downloadable software) and getting paid "up to 150% extra" you will still be hardly making anything... much less than minimum wage in any state in the USA anyhow.
Recap:
- A boostpack will give you up to 800 captchas per hour
- Doing 800 captchas in one hour means:
- You are doing about 13 captchas per minute
- That's about 1 every 4 seconds
- The highest pay rate is $0.70 per 1,000 captchas
- If you do 800 in an hour you will get paid $0.58
- Even with the extra bonus you get for using their TyperSpeed program it will still hardly be anything
No, this is not a joke. This is literally the minuscule amount of money this place is paying people.
Can you really make an extra $250/mo?
Sometimes I wonder if this was some sort of sick joke they made to laugh at everyone who even attempts to make this amount.
A month is 31 days so on average you would have to make about $8.06 per day, if you are working every day.
In order to make $8.06 per day you would have to... well... you get the point.
It would be more than a full-time job if you actually try to make this much per month... ridiculous.
Complaints/Concerns
#1 - No Company Info
The lack of company information available is obviously a big concern.
Who is running this website? We don't know.
Where are they located? We don't know.
Can you trust them? We don't know.
#2 - No SSL Certificate
According to ScamAdviser this website does not have a SSL certificate.
Why is this important? Well, because a SSL certificate ensures that information sent across the internet is encrypted, keeping your information safe.
Every big website out there is SSL protected... even my website that you are on now has a SSL certificate... so it's a bit concerning that a place like protypers.com does not have one.
During the registration process when I was entering my information to sign up I noticed this in the URL box of my Chrome browser...
This is when the SSL certificate would be the most important... because it was the registration page where I was entering information.
#3 - No Privacy Policy or T&C Pages
While I don't know where exactly this website is being run from, I can pretty much guarantee it isn't from the US, UK, and other trusted nations.
The reason is because they don't even have a Privacy Policy, a Terms & Conditions page, or anything like this.
Privacy Policies let users know what will happen with data that is collected from them. We don't know what will happen here, so I guess we should assume the worst... which is that Protypers is selling your data (personal info like email address, etc.) to other companies for money. But I have no proof of this.
#4 - A Misrepresented Opportunity
Can you really make up to $250 a month with Protyper like they claim their top-earners do?
Well, I suppose you could as explained above, but making it to this point means you are going to have to dedicate your life to working on solving captchas. It will be the most mind-numbing experience ever and will likely drive you crazy.
#5 - Account Suspension
If you aren't fast enough to solve the captchas they will not have any mercy on you.
As you can see, this error message that will appear from being too slow states that "multiple kickouts will result in an eventual ban"...
I think they give you 10 chances or so.
But I don't get why this is. Why do they care how long it takes you to solve a captcha? They should only care about accuracy. Speed is something that the worker can worry about.
They will also ban your account if you enter too many wrong captchas... and you will definitely be entering incorrect captchas at times. After all, it is natural to make mistakes when you are entering 1000's of these things over and over again.
#6 - Malware and Virus Concerns
The TyperSolver program is available for download but can you really trust this place enough to start downloading software from them onto your computer?
When you do this you will be basically giving them access inside your computer... and if they wanted to plant a virus or malware they easily could.
Without knowing anything about who is running this company, where it is located, etc... I definitely don't trust them enough to start downloading things.
#7 - Your Probably Helping Out Spammers
This type of thing has been mentioned in articles published in The New York Times and other sites like Technology Review.
Sites like this are more than likely benefiting spammers that are out there and helping to increase spam... which captchas were created to stop in the first place.
Most people targeted for this low-cost labor come from areas of southeast Asia.
Pros v Cons
Pros
- Can work from anywhere
- Flexible - can work whenever
- Good payment options
- Super easy work
- No requirements to start working
Cons
- Extremely low pay
- Boring, mind-numbing type of job
- Company lacks transparency & can't be fully trusted
- No Privacy Policy or Terms & Conditions page
Conclusion - Worth Joining or Not?
There are a lot of problems I have with ProTypers and many concerns as well, but the big question is whether or not they pay--and the answer is that they do.
If you are looking to make money online, of course it is always best to look for a transparent and trustworthy opportunity, but in the end it's all about getting paid and this place does pay people as they are supposed to... although hardly anything.
Who ProTypers Is Best For
Not many people that's for sure. The incredibly low amounts of pay that you will get from working here is not a practical way for most people to spend their time.
However, in certain parts of the world it still might be an option worth considering. For example, in one article I read it mentioned that farmers in certain areas of India who work to solve captchas do so because they make only $2 per day farming, which makes solving captchas slightly more profitable.
Alternative Options to Make Money Online
There are many ways to make money online, and solving captchas is one of the worst I have ever come across... maybe the worst.
If you want some better options then I highly suggest taking a look at my top income ideas or jump straight to this program I use which I recommend above all else.
Let me know in the comment section what you think about ProTypers and be sure to leave any questions if you have any 🙂
Hi, I had just registered and account with pro typers before reading this helpful article.
Would you recommend me to go ahead and work with them or its a waste of time?