A2K ad - FREE GIFT - digital camera

Did you report it, C.I.? (I don't know if Craven et al will see it here.)

sozobe, This is a warning to A2Kers that "winner" doesn't mean what it implies. I don't need credit, and I don't wish to purchase magazines or anything else to qualify for a GIFT.

This is what I received in my email box; <ConsumerCreditUSA>. This is outrageous!

I hate to tell you this, but it was a pop-up ad ( or close to it ). Nothing is free. No one gives away anything without at least the chance for a return. I don't mean to sound negative towards you, but I know other boards such as this are charging subscription fees to post anything. I do not go there anymore. In my opinion, I would much rather the administrators get the money they deserve from advertisers instead of me. They must have to work hard to keep this board alive, and they do deserve something. I know if I had the talent and knowledge to run a board like this, I would want something for my hard work. Sorry you went through all the trouble for "nothing", but it sounds like it was legitimate. It would not have actually cost you anything for the gift.

c.i., this was an ad on A2K, right? I have to say, I get "you are a winner" ads all the time -- A2K, elsewhere -- and I never pay any attention to them. You get what you pay for, caveat emptor, they aren't giving out free stuff for nothing.

You know?

But if it bothered you, by all means go and report it.

Why did the ad say I had to apply for credit to qualify for the gift? I don't need credit; I'm retired, and pay all my credit card balances every month.

Re: A2K ad - FREE GIFT - digital camera


I've been telling my kids to never sign-up or answer any query without asking me. No matter how good it sounds or how important it seems. Sorry this happened to you. If they have your email hope it doesn't get abused and turn over to a bunch of other spammer folk. I saw the ad also

ps - get yourself a junk email account you can use when you do subscribe to things you want - where it will not matter if your email gets shared.
:wink:

husker, I usually don't "fall" for these kinds of lead-ons. The only reason I thought it might be legit is because it's on A2K. Your idea of getting a junk email account is a good one, and I will search for one - immediately.

I've seen those ads. Since this is in the legal forum I'll note that if c.i. had read the fine print (displayed on the landing page), he'd have known as much from the beginning. It delivers exactly what it promises.

They usually say things like this:



It's not a scam. I know many people (not myself) who think that completing the steps and getting the points is worth it. I don't but there are those who do.

c.i. may not wish to apply for credit to get a free gift (neither do I) but that's the whole point of the gift ci! It's not to take a 200-300 dollar loss but to recoup this through third party offers.

You get it for free because other companies pay them for your applications surveys and such.

It's perfectly legal, and not a scam except for the people who are inordinately naive and too lazy to read the very clearly posted disclaimer.

The bottom line is that they are willing to offer you an item that costs up to several hundred dollars to you free of charge. Their requirements did not violate this promise.



Why did they need to give you a free item without any non-monetary reciprocal act on your part? They do just fine for themselves without giving away 300 dollar items to everyone who wants one.

People who get those gifts regularly usually do the following:

1) They sign up with an email address that they do not mind getting junk mail on (as some of these terms include the ability to send emails e.g. "get paid for reading emails!").

2) They complete the surveys and applications and get points for gifts.

Personally, I think they are more hassle than the gift is worth. But they are not a scam, and just should not be blamed for the naivete of the clueless citizenry who think that they are giving out 300 dollar items for no reason except their charitable nature.

For some people, the time and jumping through hoops and the marketing are all worth the gifts. If it is not worth it for you, then don't go for it. But don't get mad because your hopes got up, naivete is responsible for that and not any illegal scam.

Bottom line, if it's a real scam it will be blocked. If it pops up, it will be blocked. If it prompts for downloads, it will be blocked. If its animation is too distracting (as determined by A2K's criteria, and not individuals as "to distracting" means different things to different people) it will be blocked.

But if a visitor is just too damn naive for a capitalist society it's their own problem.

Your each visit to this site comes at a cost. This cost is paid for almost exclusively by advertisers.

The advertisers will sometimes offer you something free to get you to do something that is for some reason beneficial to them.

This is because what they are advertising as a free gift comes at a cost. This cost is paid for....

Get it?

Now let's go complain that beer doesn't really make hot girls frolic around me and that action figures and barbie dolls don't look as real outside of the ads.

But first we will complain that hamburgers simply look bigger on TV.

We'll complain that they select the biggest burgers from the lot and smaller buns.

We'll complain that they do not cook the meat all the way (so that the meat is bigger in the commercial) and use coloring to amke it look cooked (even adding the grill lines).

Then we'll complain that they use toothpicks to keep it upright while they stuff all the burger's ingredients to the front of the picture.

Now, I agree with you that in a perfect world all advertising would be as pure as the yellow snow.

But this is reality folks. You get a free ride here if you want it and it's paid for by ads that are comparitively tasteful and well selected. There are a whole lot of things I could do to actually make money off this site and the criteria we already have makes it damn hard to break even.

• We do not even consider selling email addresses to mass marketers.
  
• We do not even try to make money off of all the emails sent at all (no email marketing is one of our standards).
  
• We do not allow popup advertising and whenever we find that an advertiser is doing so without permission we block them or the whole network (this despite the fact that this site would be making me thousands of dollars a month with popups).
  
• We do not allow any download prompts.
  
• We do not allow ads for some things we simply deem too shady (e.g gator software).
  
• We do not even allow ads that are simply colors that will make you too uncomfortable.
  

The use of the age old, "free" marketing is simply not outside of our standards.

Because this is a forum that is the only type of ad inventory that can really fill the page loads. There aren't enough big name advertisers for the users who use hundreds and hundreds of page views a day.

So after the big names there are the smaller ones, usually these are ones that do things like extreme animation, prompts etc.

We block most of these but the "free with stated catch" marketing is not blocked and IMO shouldn't be.

We try our damndest to keep advertising 'clean' ci. But do consider that for some people, applying for a credit card is worth a digital camera or an Ipod.

It may not be to you or I, but that doesn't mean it's a scam. It just means we are not interested in the catch in order to get the free gift.

Also consider that it is not an "A2K" ad. Ads are placed into the rotation by several thousand advertisers, and through a couple dozen ad networks.

We do our best to maintain a standard and sometimes it takes hours of my day to keep the flashing ones out, or the popups.

But we do not endorse any ads unless explicitly stated (i.e. none so far). They are not our ads.

Ours are never misleading. e.g. "Nothing says Able2Know.com like an Able2Know.com T-Shirt".

Craven, thanks for taking the time to explain the ads on A2K. I was livid; now I'm just red-faced.

I was gunna ask how you get those A2K ads in the rotation? pretty cool

No prob. I get livid at ads all the time as it usually takes me at least 4 hours every 3 days to ensure that the ones that don't meet our standards are kept out.

Well, because we don't allow what constitutes the bulk of advertising (flashing banners) we have a lot of default inventory.

It's a tedious job to balance all the ad networks to try to keep no unsold inventory but when there's nothing to serve but junk ads (e.g. the flashing ones) we revert to charity ads (like the ones against racism or spousal violence) and our own ads (which have to this day not netted us a cent but are there to fill the occasional gap in ad rotation).

The actual method for doing so works like this:

We have top level advertisers. These guys get first dibs on ad inventory here.

When they have no ad to serve (which is common because people here go through the available ones with multiple page views) they use a default charity ad or we specify a default.

When we specify a default we usually send it back to the adserver to pull up the second level networks.

The second level networks then show ads if they have any to display and if not they display a default.

By sending defaults back into our ad server we can select from the next level networks.

Ultimately it ends with some A2K thong ad if it can't get a network ad after a couple of tries.

To balance this is a buttload of work. It means constant tweaking of the distribution to try to ensure that the ad serving is as profitable as possible.

Can we help by clicking on anything? I am occasionally interested in things but don't want to accept cookies, usually. (I am sort of antique, I have a cookie prompt window). Perhaps sometimes.

Please do not do this. Advertisers pay for individuals interested in their products and services and not for people who want to support the site they are advertising on.

I actually worked for a large advertising company once, albeit in the mail room, and considered a career in it. It sure seemed easy enough. However, I came to the conclusion that being an online psychic was equally lucrative, and less slimy. At least people gullible enough to trust a psychic feel they are taking away something positive from the experience.

Sorry, I didn't mean random or repeated clicking, more to know if my ever clicking anything that I am interested in does help.

For those of you interested in supporting the site without subscribing or chasing these ads without any true interest, you might try the "Shop" portal that appears at the top of this page. I've used it.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure using that generates some revenue for A2K.