I have a confession...

[Xstr8guy]

I'm involved in one of those 'free gift' internet marketing scams. I'm trying to earn a 42" Panasonic Plasma EDTV from RewardsVenue. And no, I'm not soliciting for referrals. This isn't that kind of deal. But I had to sign up for 9 offers and jump through a million hoops. But it's sooo addicting, .

I'm about half way through completing the offers and I would have given up without scam.com. There is a thread with over 100 pages of helpful advice. Don't start any of these free gift offers without visiting scam.com first.

Have any of you tried or completed one of these deals?

[curiousbunny]

no, do u REALLY get a tv ?

[desslock]

On some of my sites, I promote AffiliateFuel - which peddles these kinds of contest in exchange for your email address, or similar programs. It - to my knowledge - is very above board, and works carefully to keep it a proper business. Others aren't.

These "shoot the roach, win an IPOD" ads also run all over Fastclick. I am sure it is similar to the adult industry - a few bad apples have left everyone's hands dirty.

I am sure some of the programs are true scams. It sounds like you have done good research so far. Good luck!

Steve

[Xstr8guy]

no, do u REALLY get a tv ?

Apparently yes. People in the thread on scam.com have been working on it for as long as 3 months but many of them are getting their Plasmas right now and they're quality brands valued at $2000 plus. They are not HDTV but Progressive Scan EDTV. I looked at the Panasonic at BestBuy last week and it looked amazing.

And I highly, highly recommend reading through much of the scam.com Plasma thread before even visiting rewardsvenue.com.

If any of you want tips but don't want to read through the scam.com board, I'll post some tips here.

[curiousbunny]

yea bring the tips on !
hey id like a tv like that
my friend tommy told me he got one from one of those surveys
he said he never thought he'd get it but he did.

[Xstr8guy]

Here are some tips that I posted on scam.com

Tips on how to complete offers for RV newbies

1) Do only one offer per day or clear out your cache and cookies then log-in to your RV home page and do another offer.

2) Before starting the offers, disable ALL pop-up blockers and firewalls on your computer. I honestly think that this may be a HUGE reason why some offers don't ever show up. Remember to turn everything back on when you are done. :p

3) Save and print out all emails from RV and their advertisers. And be sure to add metareward.com and rewardsvenue.com to your email safe-list.

4) These offers showed up right away for me; Vonage, Sharebuilder, Dental Plans, Dish Network, Columbia House, Real Estate Fortunes, AMEX Card, Discover Titanium.

5) Stay away from Orexis, Longevity, South Beach.

6) Do only one credit card offer per company, ie. one Citi Card, one Discover. There is a very little chance a second card from the same company will ever show up.

7) Be careful when doing Credit Card offers. Too many Credit Cards can seriously damage your credit rating.

8) Do offers for things that you might actually need. Be careful returning items before you have the Plasma in your hands. RV can suspend your account for almost any reason. Others here have received their Plasma and spent very little money by returning items after they have completed. But I'm not taking that chance.

9) Read the Terms of RewardsVenue carefully.

10) Read the posts in this amazing thread that Jeanine started. There is a ton of great advice in here about every step of this complicated process. Also, add your experiences to this thread. If you found this thread helpful, it's only fair to return the favor to others that are new to the process.

[Squirt]

tip: use the Googlebar autofill option to fill out all registration forms with one click

I don't see the above on the tips but think it would seriously help you save time.

It seems business owners would be stupid to deal with these companies knowing people are doing this. I'd hate to be one of those businesses that doesn't know they are going through all the effort for people not really interested in my product/service. :francais:

[Xstr8guy]

Here are some more basic tips...

1) Use a free email account, you will be spammed to high-heaven! Be sure to set your spam settings to allow lots of crap... these addies are sure to be on every spam list around.

2) Save all correspondences, receipts, urls, etc.

3) Start a spreadsheet to keep track of your offers; cost, free trial period, site url and other important information.

4) When you first join, you will have to run the gauntlet of a bunch of spammy offers that have NOTHING to do with earning the Plasma. Just click 'no' for all of these bonus/bogus offers. I didn't realize that at first and I getting so much spam, it's not funny, .

5) The offers are organized into 3 levels. You have to complete 1 offer on the first level, 2 offers on the second level and 6 offers on the 3rd level. Review all of the different offers before starting and plan a strategy. The hardest offers are in Level 3.

6) You will spend some money on these offers. I've spent about $350 on my offers. Others have spent much less because the returned items/services for refunds.

[Xstr8guy]

Sometimes the offers don't show up even after you've received the product/service. I'm not sure if it's a technical issue or part of the scam. But make absolute sure that you have your security settings set low to accept cookies and pass referral information. One guy used Firefox and had very little trouble getting his offers to show up.

[desslock]

I can say that a lot of people particiate in these things. When I put a banner ad for "get a free plasma tv" on my cooking site - they pay $.90 to $1.10 per email address signup i send.

And they definitely roll on in.

Steve

[Lee]

Damn i was expecting you to say you were really a woman called Linda who had a sex change LOL

Regards,

Lee

[Xstr8guy]

Damn i was expecting you to say you were really a woman called Linda who had a sex change LOL

Regards,

Lee

I think it's much worse than that. I'm a complete free gift whore now, . Does anyone want to help me get a free Ipod? All you have to do is click my referrer link and complete one offer (I joined Napster). Then have 5 of your friends do the same and get yourself a free Ipod too. God, I'm such a shameful whore!

[DonMike]

I think it's much worse than that. I'm a complete free gift whore now, . Does anyone want to help me get a free Ipod? All you have to do is click my referrer link and complete one offer (I joined Napster). Then have 5 of your friends do the same and get yourself a free Ipod too. God, I'm such a shameful whore!

I was wondering if this was a real offer. Let us know how that works. I really wanted to try that one.

[Squirt]

I was wondering if this was a real offer. Let us know how that works. I really wanted to try that one.

I have a feeling it's "get a free Ipod and pay $65 shipping & handling" I hope it's not though for the sake of everyone involved :coffee:

[Xstr8guy]

I'd like to reassure everyone that these things aren't scams, but I can't because I just started this adventure. I have searched and found articles and boards that give insight into the process. Here is a rather old article on freeipods.com http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64614,00.html . I did get credit for my Napster membership real quick, which is a good sign. Now I just need 5 referrals and I should get my Ipod.

And Squirt, I would happily pay $65 for a 20gig Ipod.