One of my favorite blogs, Uncommon Business Ideas That Work, posted an entry the other day about a website looking for mystery shoppers.  The site boasts that it gives you free money (in the form of a $500 gift certificate) to shop online.  You then evaluate your shopping experience and, best of all, KEEP everything you buy.  This offer, however, is not what it seems.

The tag line ”Get FREE MONEY to shop online” on the website includes a small asterisk that states: ”with completion of program requirements.” 

That little caveat carries some force.  I entered my e-mail address on the website, and it brought me to an application page where I had to enter some pertinent information, such as my name, zip code, and address, etc.  I did all that, and the next several pages asked me to click “Yes” or “No” on several offers, including:

(1) purchasing health insurance, 

(2) a chance to win a shopping spree,

(3) receiving a $25 Home Depot or Lowe’s gift certificate for signing up with and purchasing three months of service from Cheap2Dial,

(4) getting four estimates from ReliableRemodeler.com,

(5) advancing my career with College Colleague, and

(6) improving my career with Myeducationsource.com.

After selecting “No” for each of the above offers, my quest for that coveted $500 gift card was, again, derailed with another page of offers (27 of them) ranging from signing up with ABCAutoLoans.com to signing up for dental benefits.  I could either click “Yes” for any of these offers and click on “Submit” or click on “Skip” at the bottom of the page.  I wisely skipped the offers.

The next page requested that I “[c]omplete any 1 of the sponsored offers below!”  There were 27 offers.  (At least they’re consistent!)  They ran the gamut from signing up for a Discover card to signing up for a free trial of Living Christian Software.  At the bottom of the page, it said that I could go on to the next page if I completed one of these offers.  I did not complete any of them, and I clicked to go on to the next page.

Not surprisingly, the next page (which, this time, threw me a bit of a curveball and contained 28 offers) requested that I “[c]omplete any 2 of the sponsored offers below!”  (Hhmm, I thought, they’re on to me.)  I decided to review them more closely and see if I could sign up for anything that was free.  I excluded credit card offers because opening new credit generally reduces your credit score.  I also excluded so-called “free trials” because those usually request your credit card information and put the onus on you to cancel before they start charging you.  (I clicked on the Ivory White Teeth Whitening Free Trial Offer to see if my intuition was true, and it required that I enter my credit card information to get my free trial of Ivory White.)  After a close inspection, sure enough, nothing was free.  Even the free 250 business cards from Vista Print required that you pay for shipping. 

I clicked to go on to the next page, and it was mostly the same (i.e., I had to complete two non-free offers).  The next page only requested that I complete one non-free offer.  I clicked through again, but I did not arrive at a new page.  Instead, a new window popped up with ten different “bonus rewards.”  I got tired at this point and closed all the windows (and, in the meantime, had to close out three pop-up windows with special offers).

This mystery shopper offer is obviously not what it seems and comes with some strings attached.  I am not saying that it’s a scam.  You may very well be able to get that coveted $500 gift card by completing some of those offers for credit cards or free trials.  I am simply saying that it seems to be a heavily-conditioned free offer. 

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