About two months ago, I found a great new way to earn money online. What I am talking about is Incentivized Freebie Websites (“IFW”) and forums like the Free Lunch Room and Anything4free. I got started by “going green” for others. By that I mean I provided a referral credit for an individual trying to complete a site for cash or merchandise.
I was very lucky and worked with some great people who taught me quite a bit about the system. After earning about $300, I was excited to start advertising on the forums and making some serious cash by completing freebie sites. So, I write a trade thread and got started.
What I discovered, unfortunately, was scammers, people who would go green at my site, email me to request payment, I would send them their payment for the services they rendered and then that person would in some way defraud the IFW site, the site would ban them and that person would disappear with my money.
How most people scam IFW sites is by signing up and completing numerous offers with different email addresses, a direct violation of the site policy. Also, people can scam an IFW site by completing an offer, getting credit for the offer and canceling the offer immediately.
Most honest freebie site traders (I believe they make up the majority of traders) pride themselves on paying their referrals promptly for greens, so the effect that this behavior is having on the industry is overwhelming. People are afraid to trade with new traders, and I personally have been scammed so many times that I don’t want to trade with anyone. I have a site that I need one more referral to cash out and I have spent about $200 for greens (including scammers) and the prize is only $250.
What is my advice? I would have to say, stick with the one referral cash out sites. There are several, like Rocketbills, 60.macrobucks, herfancyfreegifts and freebies4me.
I hate to say anything bad about the industry because there are a lot of good people who are just trying to supplement their incomes and the system itself is totally legitimate. Unfortunately, there are always some people who have to be dishonest and ruin it for everyone. I wonder how someone can feel good about themselves scamming someone they don’t even know out of $20, that doesn’t seem like that much money, but these days money is tight everywhere (but that’s another blog).
That being said, I am going to continue to plug along and continue with the business, although I will certainly be quite wary. I am going to want to know more about the people that I trade with, even if that loses me a few trades.
If you have been scammed on an IFW site, be sure to set up a dispute with Paypal. Paypal is great about this and even if you don’t get all of your money back, you can at least make life difficult for your scammers. I do love my petty revenge!
And for my shameless plug, if you want to trade sites with an honest trader, let me know. Hey, maybe we can make some money together!
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