Free iPod scam… Is it really a scam?
If you haven’t been living in a hole for the past ten years (which I am sure you haven’t as you are on the internet) you will certainly have seen at one point someone claiming you can get “free iPod(s)”, “free iPhone(s)”, “free taxidermy”… OK, maybe not taxidermy but you get the idea.
After seeing about a million people making these claims (“Complete one offer, refere your friend and receive your item”) I thought I would see if these seemingly silly claims are true.
Many of the links you see around direct you to a site called “Freebiejeebies” (Clickity, click, click), so I couldn’t think of a better place to start my little investigation into the world of “freebies”.
I sent in a “support ticket” to said Freebiejeebies and I was surprised to find a reply sitting in my inbox within an hour of sending it! After a few messages back and forth Alex and Richard (the Freebiejeebies owners) said they were happy to answer a few interview style questions to explain what they do. The following conversation pursued and afterwards I was convinced enough to sign up:
Me: Firstly, how can you afford to give away expensive gadgets for free?
Alex: We have various ‘offers’ advertised through our websites. Each of our customers that completes an offer is a new customer (or a potential new customer) to the offer company, and the offer company is prepared to pay us commission for introducing new business to them. We use the commission payments to pay for the items we send to our customers.
Me: I read on the homepage that I need to complete an offer. Which offers are most popular?
Alex: We have different offers available for different countries. Some of our offers are available internationally, such as Little Bid Tasty which is a reverse auction site where you can pick up all sorts of things for a fraction of the cost. Popular offers in the UK include a Lovefilm free DVD trial (a free offer), whereas our US customers can try out Blockbuster or king.com, which is a skill games website. We have a wide range of offers available so hopefully there is something to interest everyone.
Me: So your site is open to international members?
Alex: Yes, our websites are open internationally. All of our other sites are open worldwide with the exception of India and Philippines. We allow cross-referring, which means that you can benefit from obtaining referrals from any of the countries we are open to.
Me: Please could you give me an idea of how many gifts you send/have sent out?
Richard: Between March 2007 and October 2009 we have sent out £549,869.84 worth of gifts. I cannot yet provide more up to date figures but they should be available at the end of February.
Me: Finally. What would you say to people who are sceptical?
Richard: That’s actually a difficult question. We usually refer them to eXceem (a forum about freebie hunting) as there are some really helpful people and threads there which explain a lot.
At this point I was convinced that the freebie thing was legit, so I took the plunge! I signed up, completed an offer (Lovefilm as it’s free) and referred three of my friends to also sign up (and complete an offer).
Four days later the postman arrived at my front door with a brand new 4 GB iPod Shuffle… I am a very happy man!
If you’ve read all this then I am guessing you want to get started to… Fret not Click here to start your freebie journey!