More Fraud Information

[SunshineGirl]

Some of you may have read this morning about one of the main advertising companies (a CPA network) making a decision to temporarily stop allowing rewards on any of their offers. In addition to all of the offers that SR was running through that company, we had to stop other offers today because the companies that we were getting them from were getting them through that company.

It's kind of sent a chill through the incentive site owners today, wondering what is coming next. On the heels of that, I just discovered that all of the credits that I was given for 1 on 1 Psychic last month have now been revoked, and the Search for Jesus credits are now pending review. This is actually from a different CPA network than the one that started incentivizing. Add to all of that the stern words we got from a third CPA network last week about prepaid credit card use.

Everyone has got to start being really careful about fraud. Remember that fraud to an advertiser can include:

• Doing the same offer more than once at one reward program
• Doing the same offer more than once at different rewards programs
• Doing an offer and then cancelling as soon as you get credit
• Using a prepaid credit card to avoid having to pay for a membership if you forget to cancel
• Doing a trial offer more than once in the same household
• Using any fake information so that the place that you sign up with cannot contact you

Know that I am constantly keeping my ear to the ground. I'll be totally honest with you about all of our offers and our advertisers. The last thing that any of us want is for incentives to go away completely. The good news is that there are still a lot of advertisers allowing incentives. We just have to hope that the things that have been ruining it all so far stop soon so that they do not change their minds.

[plantlady]

We have been told in the past, that if we do a small, free offer, and it doesn't credit, that we are allowed to try it again. Is this considered fraud?

I personally decided to cut out the other rewards programs I was doing, and just stick with one. This though, was partly due to laziness on my part. I don't want to keep track of what offer I do where, and not repeat them. I know if I just do one, then, it will tell me if I've already done it.

[jnorth1007]

I personally only do this one. I do particpate in the one that sends out paid emails and I click on those when I get them but I only have about 10.00 there because I don't do anything else. I keep very good track of all of my offers. I wouldn't ever try to get around the system. I am so glad that I have this opportunity to earn money I don't want to mess it up. I have become very choosy about which offers that are paid that I do. I agree that you can earn more money quicker doing paid offers but it is also a lot more risk. I only do them if it is something I can truly use. I do alot of online shopping through SR. That is how I make alot of my money. I have learned to plan well in advance for gifts and by doing this I can get rewards for just about everything I need to buy. Now if only there were a grocery store online with rewards I would never have to shop in store again. You guys take this seriously. Let's all do our best to keep things on the up and up. This includes reporting situations where we see people talking about getting around the system. If you see this on other boards, the advertisers can too and these offers and others can get pulled.

[plantlady]

absolutely.

I don't want to risk losing this, I wouldn't dream of trying to cheat the system.

I make most of my money on free offers. I have only done two paid offers the entire time, and one was something I was so very excited to get (Disney books, to give to the kids on vacation).

I do a bit of shopping through SR, I'm getting better with that. I just figured out I could book hotels through SR, that was so very exciting to me! That's the majority of my shopping.

I'm going off on a tanget.. but, I love SR, and would never do anything that might be considered fraud intentually.

[jnorth1007]

BTW, it is my understanding that we can retry offers that we have not received credit for. I know this applies to the free offers. I don't know about paid ones. I would assume once you try a paid, or free trial offer (like Napster) and do or dont get credit that you are done with that one. The free offers that are "surveys or free stuff" offers can be redone until you receive credit for them. HTH!

[SunshineGirl]

I just got an email from a 4th advertiser saying that they are no longer accepting incentive sites into their program and that all sites that are currently running incentive offers are going to have their accounts terminated within 72 hours.

And a 5th and 6th advertiser have now sent out emails saying that we have to pull about 25 more offers combined from our site in the next few days because none of them are allowed to be incentivized anymore.

I also heard back about Search for Jesus--there is a CHANCE we still may get credit for those. As for the 1 on 1 Psychics, they said that every single person that signed up from my site cancelled the service quickly, so they denied every single payment.

Ya know that song "Bad Day"? I think there is a reason that I have heard it twice now today.

[mollyeilis]

I think it also applies to the bigger things. If you have a Blockbuster online account, you can't sign up for it to get the gift cert from SR. If you have a Netflix account, same deal. I think some people have had some issues with things like Disney Movie Club, but I think that DMC has simply told the people that they have an account, or had an account and re-started it...either way, SR won't get credit and neither will that person.

For that sort of thing, I just make sure it's something I want anyway AND that I don't belong to already, and I feel safe.


The trick to see if the little survey sites know who you are from your email address is a very good one.

[bbangel]

I think it is also important to note that other sites are having similar issues with advertisers but may not be telling their members about it. SunshineGirl is very open with this community, which helps prevent a lot of problems.

[ChickiePants]

Also, I don't think that if you signed up for something a long time ago and never really used it, they'll automatically delete you because you unknowingly signed up again! Everyone here is very understanding, and I think they'd at least give you a chance to plead your case before just automatically deleting your account.