“Join Now!
Site in Prelaunch!”, “Most Stable Site!”, “World’s #1 PTC!”, “Honest &
Trusted Admin!”, and all other hype promotional slogans. You may have stumbled upon them when surfing
the web. Well, there’s nothing wrong with it. Any bussinesses, including
web-based ones, must carry out advertising and promo. They require it to
attract visitors and customers. It’s useless to have good products but only little
to no people in this world know about it, right?
But one that you’d want to
avoid is the sites that will only waste – most if not all of – your valuable
time, efforts and even money : scam sites.
To put it simply, try imagining working in a company. Working around the clock each day, and when the payment day come, you get nothing. You submit protests and claims, but no answer whatsoever. Even worse, you get fired! And then the company simply vanishes. Now put that in the form of a website that does the same thing. That is a scam site. Yuck, indeed.
Okay, I use
some exaggerations in the company metaphor, but that’s for the sake of
simplicity. They may not all act that obvious, though some may also will. In
general, explained below are the common types that they will do to fool you
around – based on my own experiences having scammed a few times. I mostly join
in PTC sites so the stories below
will be based on it, though some of these ‘features’ can also be found on other
dishonest money-earning or investment type sites.
(Get) ‘Hit’-then-Run
This is
maybe the most common one. It’s exactly like what I have described in the
second paragraph, with the highlight on the vanishing act. I joined a PTC site
which is still in prelaunch phase. You could get the “Pioneer” status if
joining in that phase, with some exclusive privileges. It has stable number of
ads per day, almost the same with another site – a non-scam one. Some may
predict it could become as good as that site. By simply clicking on the ads, I
have gathered around $2 in around 2 months after joining. The minimum cashout
is also $2 once the site has gone fully launched. Scheduled to be officially
launched around 2-3 months after the prelaunch, which is also almost at the
same time I – and I’m pretty sure other “Pioneer” members as well – should have
been able to cashout, there came a trouble.
The site administrator
(admin) said that there’s a problem with their site and they may need some time
to solve it. This problem affects the cashout process : the cashout button is
dimmed, so you couldn’t file any cashout claim, though the ads are still running.
Several days passed and nothing better happened. Members begun to complaining
in the forum, some still have faith while others casting suspicions on the
site. Worse, the admin did not give any other explanation except hoping the
members to support them. Plus, admin appearances begun to diminishing in the
forum day by day while doubts grew uncontrolled. Some members even put their
own promotional links in their posts, violating the forum rules but no action
taken at all.
And worst, the
site then gone down. You got an error when typing the web address. I still
thought and hoped, that it’s only a temporary problems with their server. Maybe
they can get it back online soon. But several days even weeks has passed, it’s
still just the same. There’s only one conclusion : It has finally – and
officially – vanished. Gone, dead, the end. The cashout? Forget it.
In short:
they open a new site, gather advertisers, get money from them, display it to
the members (so that the advertisers believe it’s a valid site because the ads are
really displayed and they get ‘hits’ or visits), and when it’s member payment
day, just run with all the money (where some parts of it should have been given
to the members).
Only for Months
Maybe
slightly better than the above. They have longer lifetime – but not too long,
and pay their members. Still, the problem is that this kind of site will only
lasts in months before disappearing. You may earn, but not for long.
You join it,
register your email, username, password, etc. Then after activation you can go
clicking the ads. Once you have reached the minimum threshold, you can ask for
cashout. And yes, mostly you will get your salary. Then come an ill news. The
admin tells that there are some problems with their site, either technically or
financially. Days later, you may experience some difficulties accessing the
site or some part of it. In worse case, there will be no explanation before,
then it suddenly stops being operational, just like the last story.
You may have
already gathered some sum of dollars, but that’s it. Your earning from it has
been discontinued and you must look for other sites to earn – hopefully not the
scam one. Those who join later (approaching the period where it goes down)
maybe the one who dissapointed the most. Some may even already have made investments
on the site. The closing of the site mean that it’s no longer sustainable, so
it’s impossible to get their money back whatsoever. Okay, I’m still not really
sure to put this kind of site as a real scam. PTC
is a bussiness, and a bussiness may go up or even go down. But still, it
sometimes hard to separate the dishonest from the unlucky. Better be careful.
Don’t put too much trust on a site that are still not fully established yet, or
only just founded months before.
Random Payments
Okay, the
first story is about that sites which don’t pay at all and just untimely
vanish. The second one pays but meet the same end, though have slight longer
lifetime. Now the third story is rather… unique. It pays and it doesn’t extinct.
So, what’s the problem with it? Well, the sub-title above this paragraph says
it all.
I think you
can also call it ‘selective payment’. Some members are paid, but some others
are not. ‘Luckily’, I’m one of the later. I’ve gained around $50, and it’s the
first PTC site that I joined back in around 2008. Quite disheartening, huh?
Filed a complaint, and no response. Browsing some forums (mostly outer forums
because the one they have only mention the good side, no ‘complaints’ or
‘doubts’ section like a real solid PTC site), I then found some facts that the
site has the ‘behaviour’ to grant cashout to random members. What a pain in the
butt… If a member has done the task to click on the ads honestly, then he or
she has the same right to be paid. That should applies to all the members.
With this – wicked
– method, they can sustain the site (using the ‘stolen’ cashout) while still
holding enough members to click the ads (those who paid). The paid members will
counter those who accuse it as a scam. They’ll yell to others, “I’ve been paid!
This site is paying! Join now!”, and some newbies would fall into the trap.
Knowing this fact, I bid my good bye to the site. It’s still running until
nowadays, though I don’t see anyone advertising them in any PTC (Whew…).
