So many scams..so much time!

I have to admit I am exhausted. I have been researching making money by completing offers or freebies for cash. So to protect my debit card that I pay bills and etc with I bought a $25 prepaid visa debit card to complete offers with to see if this is really a way to make money. I figured if I use the prepaid card I couldn’t jeopardize my money. So can you make money by completing offers? My answer is both yes and no. Although you can make some money, but you can also lose a lot of money. I compare completing offers like playing the lotto. Sometimes you make money and sometimes you lose.

Many people make money by visiting websites such as Free Lunch Room or Free iPod Guide, etc. They find people who are paying for people to sign up for offers. Sometimes the sites will require you to sign up for a trial that costs only $1 or $2 but if you keep the product or service, then you could be billed $50-$60 a month or more! Sometimes you will order a sample product and just pay shipping which is wonderful but then most all times you are put on an auto-ship program and are paying each month for the full size products. Many times the terms of the offers make it almost impossible to cancel the service.

There are some users who will pay you to sign up with an affiliate marketing link and will pay you a few bucks for doing so via PayPal.

So here are some things I have learned!

• NEVER EVER use your personal credit cards or bank cards to sign up for offers. You are putting your financial health at risk by doing so.
• NEVER complete a “trade” from someone you don’t know or who has not set up an official trade from the website you used to find people who are paying for referrals. Many people will send an IM to you or email if you have it listed on your profile and then state they are willing to pay for referrals. If you get such an IM ask them what site they saw your profile on and then ask them to set up a trade using the trade manager. This protects you both! If they are scam artist (the freebie industry is loaded with fraudsters) you will never hear back from them because they will move on to the next victim. It’s best to not include your email address or IM screen name on your public profile.
• If you are new to this way of making money, start with offers that require no credit card. You will make less money but have nothing to lose.
• Most times you will pay about ½ for what you will earn, so let’s say you are promised $60 to complete some offers, you will have to buy trial memberships, product samples, services that usually cost about ½ of what you will make.
• When looking on Freebie sites for people who pay for offers the only people making real money is the one offering. You can complete your own offers on your own at the same sites they list and make much more money.
• Always use a separate email address just for doing offers! Your email address will be sold and you WILL get lots of email!

My overall opinion of making money using freebies is it is a gamble. Some sites may not credit the offers you do for a number of reasons, even if you spend money on the offer. I personally do not believe in signing up for an offer just to get paid. If you genuinely are interested in the offer you are buying then this is a GREAT way to save money and maybe get a few bucks back in return. I think of it this way, if I was paying a site to advertise my services, I would not want someone who was not interested in what I was selling to sign up only because they were being paid to and then turn around and cancel.