Have you seen these "free ipod" banners?

Question

Some of them offer a free ipod, some just a $50 gift card to a resturant or something. They send you to all these websites where you have to sign up for offers, credit cards, etc.
Has anyone gotten the ipod, or are they just a huge scam?

Answer 1

You shouldn't automatically dismiss every one of these sites as a scam. Many of them, the Gratis company, for example, actually are legitimate programs that WILL send you the item once you complete their "offers." Of course, afer all is said and done, you'd have been much better off simply going to the store and buying one.

By know, we should all know how these sites work. I sure do, and I've got the 1672 items in my bulk mail folder to prove it. They offer FREE iPods, laptops, TVs, gift cards, money via PayPal, and all sorts of other goodies, and all you have to do to recieve your FREE item is pay for a bunch of trials and product samples. All of these offers that you must complete require credit cards, which is dumb, because if you can afford to maintain a credit card, you can probably afford to go buy whatever it is that they're giving away.

Once you complete the offers that they ask you to participate in, after everything goes through, you recieve the product sample, credit card, free trial, or what-have-you, that you paid for, (keeping in mind that these kinds of things usually take anywhere from a few weeks to a LOT of weeks), AND you recieve credit for it (another few weeks), you must refer, usually, 5-or-so people, ALL of whom must complete an offer or two themselves (another few weeks for each of them), and then THEY must refer someone to complete an offer.

They'll also revoke any offer, or your whole account, if you don't follow their rules to a "T". For example, if you post a link on your website instructing readers to sign up for a free trial so that you'll get your credit, but then tell them to cancel the trial before it expires and their cards will be charged, they won't make as much money, and won't take too kindly to your instructions. You also must refer unique people, who then must refer unique people, meaning, you can't create multiple accounts and pose as your own referrals (which doesn't make sense to me, since they're getting the money anyway).

Obviously, very few people are going to put up with all of this nonsense, and these companies will have to send out very few of the products that they offer. They make all their money from the people who sign up, pay for a few offers and then say "screw the whole thing."

So, all in all, you CAN get an iPod off of them for a few bucks, but you'll need a credit card, an incredible amount of patience and 10 other people who are actually going to go through with it.

Answer 2

Wired Magazine had an interesting article about the primary company for these. The article is "Making free ipods pay off" and can be found here, http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,64614-0.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

And starts out,

"Unless you're extremely gullible, the promise of getting a free iPod from FreeiPods.com looks extremely dubious.

But surprisingly, the site appears to be legitimate. The program almost certainly isn't a dodgy pyramid scheme; it's a new form of online marketing supported by companies like eBay, AOL and Columbia House."

Answer 3

I do know of one person who says he got the free iPod, but I can't really confirm that he did. Most people just report all the hassles and how they were never able to get anything out of it. There are probably a few people who get this stuff, but in general I'd stay away from them.

Answer 4

i tried one of those too until it asked for my credit card then i was like f*** that. it is a scam because you will end up paying money befroe u get anything, but legally there has to be a way to get the ipod, or they would get busted for false advertisemnt