Tarbux Scam

I find that after a few days of no ads today we see the old server under maintenance screen - the same as we did with internationalmoneybux.com.

Unfortunately it is impossible to find the owners of the site from a Whois query as they are hidden behind a GoDaddy proxy. Anybody in the States want to have a look?

Chrissy at MFMO is having troubles but is open about what is going on - Support him and seek out the scummy scammers.

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MFMO Troubles

This is the news. I will comment in another post!

Guys,

I have received some of the worse news I have ever received in my life.

I think you know what’s coming ..

Paypal have permanently closed my account …

… for the sale of Multi Level Marketing !

Apparently they have reviewed it, required more info, reinvestigated and have closed and rejected a right to appeal.

Never in a million years would I have imagined this would happen. I made last minute changes on recommendation of many people, I read and re read their terms, and have pretty much jumped through every hoop, and yet they still do this.

What makes me so annoyed is that they will not negotiate. They are not willing to let me know the changes they want. You would not believe how fuming i am !

Paypal have put a massive downer on MFMO. It has made a lot of work and caused alot of upset.

Its moments like this that can make or break not just a site / program, but also a person.

Paypal are not my pal …
they might have put a real stop on MFMO and defiantly done our reputation some damage, but having it made clear that I am to shut up and walk away just means they can stick their business up their butts !
I am working on trying to get funds into my Alertpay and Egold accounts.
Living in the UK makes funding Alertpay pretty tough and with them not been too popular with advertisers or upgraders those accounts have not really taken much. Once Alertpay approve my documents i will be able to transfer cash between my EG and Alertpay account. I know this still leave loads of people wondering what they are gonna do for cashouts, but, stick with me for a minute ..!
Mobillcash and google checkout have not been bad for taking money, they are no good for paying you your commissions, but they create the funds I would need to buy any offline gift cards, postal orders, sending cheques etc …

Google checkout is simple to purchase through, so if you still only use them bum wipes over at paypal to buy things online with, please seriously consider them as a purchasing option. They are not fully integrated into the ads pages of MFMO so if you would like to buy advertising through google checkout then please get in touch and i shall create a button (till i can get it coded dynamical into the ads pages that is!!

Now before I go any further i just need to clear one thing up. I have mentioned it before and need to mention it again to stress the point.

We do not use moneybookers for payouts. They do not like GPT sites, and its going to take me a while to pick up the pieces from our Paypal whirlwind!

I do not want to go through this again as i need moneybookers for other projects.

If MFMO is to have any kind of future I am afraid that we are gonna have to make a couple of changes.
The 1st one is totally out of my hands and something that I can do nothing about (except maybe tell you about http://www.paypalsucks.com !)

make-free-money-onlkine.info no longer use paypal for taking or making online payments and never will again.

The next is not just a preventative measure, its also so as to try and get MFMO back to the way we were 5 weeks ago.
The minimum payout for alertpay and egold will have to raise to $3. I appreciate this is a huge step but one of the very few clues PP give me why my account was suspicious was all the transactions each day for just $1. By raising the minimum payout it will stall payouts a lil’ so i get a chance to catch up as and will obviously not be doing as many transactions. This is a tough decision and I know a lot of you joined because the $1 payout banner. But please try and understand that I am proposing this change to give MFMO a chance for survival.

So what about those who have no alertpay or egold account?

If all you would do with the money you cashout to PP is spend it somewhere else online then perhaps consider opening either an Alertpay or and Egold account just for spending it online!

If you are tied into PP because you pull the cashout into your bank then US and CAN can currently transfer cash into Alertpay. And Egold has many trusted sites to sell your Egold. (i shall have a recommendation by the weekend as i am just trying one site out for buying EG)

Its also interesting to know that once you verify your Alertpay account you can then withdraw to or fund from Egold.

This is going to take a lil time to suss out but what i plan on doing is as follows: (and this list is in no way complete! I will need your input to make it happen!!)

Currently:

UK users can request a postal order (£5min) or online vouchers or gift cards (£10 min) (please bear in mind the conversion ratio)

US users can request online vouchers and gift cards ($10 min)

AUS users also can request vouchers and gift cards ($10 min(aussie dollars!!))

Eventually i want to be able to just send out cheques but at present do not have an account that allows this. For now we will just have to wait and see if my friends from some other countries will get back and and be willing to help with ideas for gifts in their country !!

I plan on sending out our 1st requests for payment by Monday, Please do not expect instant payout When the button goes live its unfortunately a race till the account are cleared out! (in the case of egold and alertpay that is!!) We are going to have maybe one of the largest payout queues in the whole entire GPT galaxy ! It will certainly be a challenge to process !

If you are reading this and would like to cashout a particular voucher or gift card from your country then please use the contact form over at MFMO to let me know and i shall get them ordered and processed asap. Many of you will have large account balances and if you would like to redeem them for any kind of (legit) online vouchers or types of prepaid cards then please do suggest. If they can be brought online i will review it and see what we can cook up!!

Think like department store / supermarket / Amazon / ..etc.. vouchers are totally practically too. They may as well be cash with what you can but with them!! I just need to know what the different department stores are around the world!!

Another suggestion a friend had was Itunes ..?

I dunno!

I need your input!!

Unfortunately these options will have a charge. Each charge will be clear for each option we make and is only to cover any charges i shall incur such as processing fees, stamps envelopes (if pap’!) If its going to cost more than $13 for a $10 request then some different ideas will need to be had! Lets just bang our heads together and see what ideas we can come up with for now.

Our final change is to the way that our current PTSU section works. (or more to the point doesn’t!)
This is a lil off topic when you consider our main issues, but i think its important you know. The change below will not actually change for another week or two at least!.

So, the change …

To get credit for an offer, members will have to be active for at least 5 days and approved by the advertiser.

For those of you who use the PTSU section honestly (thanks!) this will not affect you are you will only be joining sites that interest you (or at least should be!!)

Many users try and abuse the PTSU section as they think it can be an easy 15c. To ensure real value to our advertisers, they will receive receive an email of user names to confirm as active.

I will still be doing the primary check so you will still need to paste in the confirmation email your receive from the offer and that you have not been credited for this ad from a potential advertiser. Its just the advertiser has to then let me know who is playing by the new rules.

The value of offers will change too. I plan on bring it down 10c so that i do not have to charge extra for the extra time incurred verifying EVERY sign up with the advertiser.

If the program you joined did not send a confirmation email then please paste in the email address you used, your username if applicable and the date you joined.

I will change the PTSU section to reflect these changes and enhance the importance of the new rules, for now though i just want you to be aware, that, that section is going to under go a real rethink !

I have to make a really big apology for not been more prepared and having at least some kind of backup plan. I feel embarrassed like you would not believe.

I honestly thought PP would come round and at least communicate, but they do not. Just freeze. Keep you in the dark and eventually slap you on the botty on say ‘Do one’

I unfortunately feel that this is going to be come a common thing. If they done this to me for MFMO, the surly other sites must be getting roughed up by them big bullies too?

PP have now said i can request my funds and Naturally i have requested to withdraw everything to my bank (i say everything, its not exactly loads!!!), will change the email to an unused email try and remove any personal info and do as they have suggested and shut up and leave.

I will be usuing my yuwie blog to air my vexes and let off a lil more steam. (I do not want to curse at MFMO!)

I will continue to work on getting more ways to pay for advertising as well as more options for redemptions and payouts.

I am also still trying to redesign MFMO.
Once done i plan a few things that i just know will get us back to where we where that very long 5 weeks ago ..

Trust me …

It will be HUGE !!!!

Thanks for sticking with MFMO too. It may take me a couple of days to get everything changed such as the banners, all the pages, adding the payout options etc .. Once set up i shall restart my own personal advertising campaigns.
I have to admit that i have not been doing much as i was just too embarrassed, but that’s gone, i must have thousands of TE credits just waiting to be used as well as a million safelist credits!! Thats before redeeming all my ads at where i am upgraded !!

Once i am sure everything is covered as far as the new changes are, expect to see my ads around a few places !!!

To our future ..

Chrissy J – MFMO admin

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Survey Hints and Tips

Surveys are all different but some of the tips that I can give are applicable to all the surveys I undertake.

Be Honest

The first thing is, of course, to be completely honest in your replies. When the screening questions begin it can become quite clear exactly what the target group will consist of. For instance, in a survey I recently undertook it was quite obvious from the first couple of questions that they were looking for owner / drivers of luxury car models. I knew that and could have easily lied but didn't - I have a compact and very very rarely drive (I hate it!) . The result? A few days later a better paying survey dealing with the advertising of compacts turned up.

It does you no good, in the longer term, to lie. Survey companies only want people they can trust.

Respond Quickly

This certainly does not apply to all survey companies and I can offer only anecdotal evidence but in my experience if you respond to surveys quickly you will get invited to complete more. If you stop doing them, for any reason, when you pick them back up they do not flow as quickly for some time. Check your Inbox and the survey sites themselves regularly.

Keep your personal profile up to date

Some time ago I went from being a full-time employee to being self-employed. It is important to update your profile of changes such as this in order so that you get correctly targeted surveys to complete.

Surveys To Join

The first thing to be clear about is that you need not pay to join any survey panels. There are ads around for sites which not only expect you to pay them for the information but also expect you to join using their referral id. Don't do it! You can get the same information by spending some time with Google.

Here are the best of the ones I have joined:

Lightspeed. This organisation is regularly sending surveys for completion. Each of them gets you 110 Lightspeed Points. Points can be redeemed for a wide range of goods but most people would probably like to know that 115 Lightspeed Points will get you a £1 PayPal credit.
It is important to logon to the site regularly and complete Mini Polls and Quick Matches. It appears that the more assiduously you complete these the more surveys you get invited to.

There is currently no Affiliate scheme.

YouGov. This is an excellent survey company which has the distinction of being taken very seriously by governments. I have received a steady flow of surveys with rewards from £0.50 to £3.00 covering a wide range of subjects. You will not receive payout until your account reaches £50, and reaching this could take some time, but you will be paid.

There are also regular Prize Draw surveys to carry out with prizes ranging up to £1000.

To be continued...

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Paid to Read Scams

I think some of the scams running in Paid to Read are now coming to light. The two that concern me the most are InternationalMoneyBux.com and Topbux.com.

InternationalMoneyBux

InternationalMoneyBux.com opened for a few days and no doubt got lots of sign ups but the site has just been showing a message showing that there is a server problem for ages now. What concerns me is that the owner of the site has taken money from advertisers and those choosing to pay to upgrade and then just moved on to the next scam. From the Whois database the details are:

Registrant:
International Money Bux
VIA COLLODI, 1
Gassino Torinese, n 10090
IT

Registrar: NAMESDIRECT
Domain Name: INTERNATIONALMONEYBUX.COM
Created on: 08-AUG-07
Expires on: 08-AUG-08
Last Updated on: 08-AUG-07

Administrative, Technical Contact:
Sergio, Richard sergio.richard@poste.it
International Money Bux
VIA COLLODI, 1
Gassino Torinese, n 10090
IT
39 335 597-2903

I have emailed asking for reasons for the problems but had no response. Not that I expected any! Before joing any new sites check the Whois for details in case this joker is involved again. Why not e-mail and ask for details yourself if only to annoy his host.

TopBux

On Topbux added to the Browse Ads page is the note:

Note: If you cannot see much ads, please consider upgrade. Advertisers recent activity shows that they are targetting premium members. upto 90% ads goes to Premium members. TopBux prefers Premium_Pack_1.

The minimum price for the upgrade is $59. Now that represents an awful lot of clicks to be made and I am guessing that those who bought referrals are now finding that not many are getting ads to click on unless they have themselves upgraded. I'm advising everyone to steer well clear of this as the likelihood is that only a very few people will ever reach the payout level.

Sadly in this case the registrant cannot be identified as the domain is anonymously hosted by a provider BlueHost.com in Orem, Utah, USA. By the way I've seen loads of ads for them on Traffic Exchanges lately - could they be one and the same?

Let me know if you suspect any other scams - remember IF THE OFFER LOOKS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY IS.

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I'm Back in Paid to Read World

Paid to Read Meltdown?

I've been away on a forced, and unexpected, break. What do I find? Well I think the main thing is that the main $0.01 Paid to Read sites seem, almost without exception, to be flagging. I am seeing just the same old ads again and again on Bux.to now down to about 5 per day which is very disappointing. Adbux has a greater number but the value since the site revamp is below that of bux.to - in fact I don't know why I'm bothering.

Topbux and Tarbux seem to be just about hanging on. International Money Bux seems to have lasted only a few days and although others like ClixMedia are hanging in there (in fact Clix Media is showing me more ads lately) the real star for me is without doubt Make Free Money Online dot Info. I've been paid twice - although PayPal are being a pain to Chrissy at the moment - the ads keep coming and life is sweet there!

Adsentive is also performing well (PTP paying well here) together with Wordlinx and LinkGrand. Beyong these I frankly wouldn't bother!

I have to report payments from two surveys Global Test and Ciao. More on surveys next post.

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