May 2006 Archives

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but they've just started their FOURTH instant-win game in 13 months (their second instant-win game this month alone!).

In their new Dads & Grads game -- which you can access directly here: http://mypoints.eprize.net/dadsandgrads -- you can play up to three times a day through June 25th. The first person to play on or nearest after a computer generated winning time will win a prize.

There will be one 100,000-point winner, 35 10,000-point winners, and 365 1,000-point winners, for a total of 401 winners. And as in prior instant win games, losers will be offered the chance to earn double points for purchases at a particular MyPoints merchant.

These contests must be lucrative to MyPoints' bottom line, as frequently as they're being offered now. I guess that even with offering double points, they're still making money. Have fun, but just remember that with just 401 winners, and 1.4 million active MyPoints members, your odds of winning aren't that spectacular.

Last night, CTTM went back online. Redemptions are "going out in the next two weeks." If you want to redeem points in your account now, there are none online, but the site promises more info in the next few days about some kind of mall redemption area to be added soon.

Perhaps coincidentally, within seconds of going to the new CTTM site, some kind of file downloaded (getting past my Prompt on Download IE setting AND my firewall), and the firewall notified me that two different programs that I never heard of were trying to connect to the internet. I'm off to run a virus scanner, Adaware, and Spybot, but my recommendation in the meantime: don't even go to CTTM until we get some reports that redemptions are being sent out and that new redemptions are being allowed. Aside from the unwanted file download which COULD be a coincidence, this site does not have a positive track record and if all you can do is earn points you can't redeem, why bother? I hope that the site turns itself around but until then, I would suggest a wait-and-see attitude. Let's hear the buzz on payments first, and do our offers and shopping through sites that we KNOW will pay us (and sometime this year).

I logged into OpinionOutpost this morning to do a survey and found that they had three new sets of profile questions up (in the Grand Hotel section). These profile questions help to qualify you for upcoming surveys, so be sure you fill them out -- some are a little lengthy, so give yourself plenty of time.

If you're not a member of OpinionOutpost yet, please give them a try. I cashed out there for a $5 check in March, received it in April, and I'm up to $3 again. They don't send out a lot of surveys, but they're worth a buck or two when they do send them out. (1 point = 10 cents; the survey I did today was for 20 points, or $2, and it was fairly brief compared to some that I've done for other survey sites.)

In a news release issued today, Greenpoints officially announced that it would be doubling rewards points for a limited time, as I reported here on April 23.

The release says the program has added 50 merchants recently (they're now over 100, which is pretty pathetic for a rewards program that has been in operation as long as Greenpoint has), and that their membership is "more than 10 million members."

Please let me reiterate: Even doubling the value of their points, the standard rate of 20 points per dollar at Greenpoints equals just 2.4%. For the vast majority of their merchants, you will earn a better rebate by shopping through other rewards programs.

Every day through Friday, FatWallet is offering a higher-than-usual rebate on one "Mystery Merchant." Today's Mystery Merchant is 1-800Flowers, where FatWallet FatCash members will earn 12.0% on purchases today only.

Today I found a link for a survey site for the TVGuide Channel, Team TVGuide. Incentives include giftcards for Starbucks, Buy.com, Target, iTunes, and others.

Get 500 points for signing up, and the lowest level GC costs 2500 points.

The site is powered by ePoll, and if you have or ever have had an ePoll account, you may have login problems (as I did). I have an email in to their customer support to find out what's up.

Today's Chicago Daily Herald reports that Ebates.com's founder and CEO Alessandro Isolani is denying charges that its MoeMoneyMaker software is not an illegal spyware download.

He says, "Spyware is a horrible threat to Internet users, but the problem with this lawsuit it is miscasts our company." He also says that, "All of our pop-ups are clearly labeled," and, "We’re confident that the facts will weigh in our favor."

I don't understand how Isolani's claim that Ebates does not "illegally download spyware" when Ben Edelman's website, in December 2004, captured a video of it being done! Are they going to try to wiggle out of it by saying, "We don't do that ANYMORE"? Or maybe they're going to try to say, "MMM is adware, not spyware"?

In any event, the controversy alone over MoeMoneyMaker should be enough to convince you that if you do have it on your computer, you need to get it off...even if you voluntarily installed it in the first place. But if you need another reason: MMM can interfere with you receiving a rebate through a different rewards program. A tool to remove MMM is located here (click "download removal software).

Bonnie Corso of ClickToTheMagic.com emailed a member, who was kind enough to forward the message on to me, saying that her site would return:

"We're just about ready. We decided to do whatever necessary to host ourselves. That included purchasing hardware, software, and getting lines run. We've got everything ready, just now to put it all together. Software is loaded onto the hardware, lines are installed, we just now need to put the site on the server and update the IP address. I am tired of dealing with hosting companies that are run by inexperienced kids. The last one was pulling as major temper tantrum and wouldn't do anything more to work us on trying to fix an issue.

I had no idea how long this was all going to take! Its been 2 months and I'm going through withdrawals!!!! As long as everything updates the way it should, we should be back online next week. It's been a huge learning process for me, even though I took classes on hosting and worked in IT for years, to actually do it for yourself is a major project.

Please let everyone know, even though the site isn't showing, its still in the works.

Thank you!!
Bonnie"

A suit was filed in a Chicago court on Friday against Ebates, claiming their software (MoeMoneyMaker) was downloaded without approval with the intent of tracking the person's internet behavior. Ebates has not yet responded.

The attorney, Shawn Collins of Napierville, IL, won a anti-spyware settlement in February against Direct Revenue. While other similar cases use the argument that spyware downloads are fraudulent, Collins used a different approach -- claiming that they are trespassing. The Chicago judge allowed this argument in the Direct Revenue case, so Collins is trying it now against Ebates.

Interesting reading in today's Chicago Tribune article here.

MyPoints started a new instant win game yesterday, their third in 13 months. With their new Mother's Day Instant Win Game, located here, you can win one of 521 prizes if you happen to be the person playing at or closest after the computer-generated, pre-determined winning times.

500 members will win 1,000 points; 20 will win 10,000 points; and one lucky winner will win 100,000 points.

The last time they did this, in November, there were 2,002 winners instead of 521.

You can play three times a day; the promotion runs through May 21. There are an estimated 1.4 million active MyPoints members. Good luck...you're gonna need it!