CB
8 May 2006, 05:13pm
Recently this article was irresponsibly posted by an ABC news reporter:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/SaveInMay/story?id=1921932
Get Paid to Play Games, Check E-mail
May 4, 2006 — If you like to play games on the Web in your spare time, you may as well get paid for having fun!
There are Web sites that will pay their members to play games, read e-mails, and join online survey panels.
Credible sites include www.inboxdollars.com, www.sendearnings.com and www.mypoints.com. If you look for similar sites in a search engine, be sure to read the fine print regarding privacy policies.
Although you won't get rich with these sites, you may earn a little extra cash with very little effort.
For example, Inbox Dollars pays its members between 1 cent and 10 cents per e-mail read, 5 cents to 10 cents per free game played, and up to $4 for each online survey panel that members join. The average payment is 2 cents per e-mail. New members get $5 when they join and get another $5 for every friend they refer to the program.
Members can earn more if they win the games, as they compete against other members playing the same game. The sites also offer paid games that require payment — starting at 25 cents a game — but it is not necessary to pay for games to earn a little money.
Send Earnings is similar to Inbox Dollars, although new members receive $3 rather than $5.
Mypoints.com compensates members with points rather than cash, and members can redeem their points for a variety of retailer gift cards. Mypoints.com also rewards members with points when they shop online with participating retailers.
The article makes it sound trust worthy, but it is not. The site is a scamoola (pronounced: skam-olla). I'm not sure how they got to this reporter, but if you read thru the documentation you find these facts:
1. You don't actually get the five dollar bonus unless you 'complete one of these great offers'...
This first point is not too bad, as the offers do not cost anything, however, most of them require you to give your phone number, and check a box that says 'Yes, I would like a representative to call me'. The five dollars is not just for signing up.
2. In order to get your check, you have to have earned at least $30, and they charge you $3 out of that for sending the check.
So, you can't get the five dollars you just earned until after you earn another $25, and even then, they take 10% of what they gave to you back to process the check. Does this make sense? why wouldn't they just give you 10% less money for each thing, if they wanted to keep some of it?
3. You do not get money for just playing the free versions of the games. You must play the 'CA$H games' to get money, and those cost money to play. You only actually make money if you win.... That sounds more like gambling to me.
From their website: Your InboxDollars Account is separate from your InboxDollars CA$H Games account. You need to register for a CA$H Games account if you have not yet done so.
InboxDollars shares the revenue generated from our CA$H Games with our Members. While you are welcome to play the free version of our CA$H Games, we are only able to pay our Members if they deposit money into their account and play the real money version of our CA$H Games. Note: you will not earn money from InboxDollars playing with the initial $6.00 that will be credited to your account upon registering!
This means that the only way to really 'earn money without effort' is to read the e-mails that they send to you. They only send aprox. 5 e-mails per week to each user (well, only five paid ones. There is nothing the the privacy policy that says they wont send any unpaid mails), and each mail earns an average of 2c. which comes out to about $5 per year.
Also, you don't just have to recieve or read the e-mails, you have to click a link in the e-mail, which takes you to an advertisement site.
All this together means that if you really want 'money for no effort' that the reporter promises, you need to wait five years, to earn money from the e-mails, at which time they will finally send you a $27 check... If they haven't changed the rules by then (which, by the way, are subject to change at any time without notice)
I tried to write to the original reporter, or to her editor, but I was unable to find an address that would get the message to the right person. My responce instead was to post this hear, and hope it gets read, and spread, by the members.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/SaveInMay/story?id=1921932
Get Paid to Play Games, Check E-mail
May 4, 2006 — If you like to play games on the Web in your spare time, you may as well get paid for having fun!
There are Web sites that will pay their members to play games, read e-mails, and join online survey panels.
Credible sites include www.inboxdollars.com, www.sendearnings.com and www.mypoints.com. If you look for similar sites in a search engine, be sure to read the fine print regarding privacy policies.
Although you won't get rich with these sites, you may earn a little extra cash with very little effort.
For example, Inbox Dollars pays its members between 1 cent and 10 cents per e-mail read, 5 cents to 10 cents per free game played, and up to $4 for each online survey panel that members join. The average payment is 2 cents per e-mail. New members get $5 when they join and get another $5 for every friend they refer to the program.
Members can earn more if they win the games, as they compete against other members playing the same game. The sites also offer paid games that require payment — starting at 25 cents a game — but it is not necessary to pay for games to earn a little money.
Send Earnings is similar to Inbox Dollars, although new members receive $3 rather than $5.
Mypoints.com compensates members with points rather than cash, and members can redeem their points for a variety of retailer gift cards. Mypoints.com also rewards members with points when they shop online with participating retailers.
The article makes it sound trust worthy, but it is not. The site is a scamoola (pronounced: skam-olla). I'm not sure how they got to this reporter, but if you read thru the documentation you find these facts:
1. You don't actually get the five dollar bonus unless you 'complete one of these great offers'...
This first point is not too bad, as the offers do not cost anything, however, most of them require you to give your phone number, and check a box that says 'Yes, I would like a representative to call me'. The five dollars is not just for signing up.
2. In order to get your check, you have to have earned at least $30, and they charge you $3 out of that for sending the check.
So, you can't get the five dollars you just earned until after you earn another $25, and even then, they take 10% of what they gave to you back to process the check. Does this make sense? why wouldn't they just give you 10% less money for each thing, if they wanted to keep some of it?
3. You do not get money for just playing the free versions of the games. You must play the 'CA$H games' to get money, and those cost money to play. You only actually make money if you win.... That sounds more like gambling to me.
From their website: Your InboxDollars Account is separate from your InboxDollars CA$H Games account. You need to register for a CA$H Games account if you have not yet done so.
InboxDollars shares the revenue generated from our CA$H Games with our Members. While you are welcome to play the free version of our CA$H Games, we are only able to pay our Members if they deposit money into their account and play the real money version of our CA$H Games. Note: you will not earn money from InboxDollars playing with the initial $6.00 that will be credited to your account upon registering!
This means that the only way to really 'earn money without effort' is to read the e-mails that they send to you. They only send aprox. 5 e-mails per week to each user (well, only five paid ones. There is nothing the the privacy policy that says they wont send any unpaid mails), and each mail earns an average of 2c. which comes out to about $5 per year.
Also, you don't just have to recieve or read the e-mails, you have to click a link in the e-mail, which takes you to an advertisement site.
All this together means that if you really want 'money for no effort' that the reporter promises, you need to wait five years, to earn money from the e-mails, at which time they will finally send you a $27 check... If they haven't changed the rules by then (which, by the way, are subject to change at any time without notice)
I tried to write to the original reporter, or to her editor, but I was unable to find an address that would get the message to the right person. My responce instead was to post this hear, and hope it gets read, and spread, by the members.