About that iPhone...

GOOD NEWS! GOT IT!

Well, didn't get the phone itself, but even better, I got a $600 check.

The whole process was laborious. I don't recommend it to anyone. This was just something I wanted to do to see if you really could take advantage of those little sidebar advertisements. However, if you are thinking about trying it, some tips:


1. Check out scam.com to see if that site is legit
Good site where I learned some dos and don'ts.

2. Create a secondary email address
I stopped deleting all the spam from my gmail account, and now it's around 1200.

3. Get a gift Visa card to fill out the offers
This way you can't get taken advantage of if something does go wrong.

4. Be patient but persistent
I called and emailed the company probably 20 times total. The process took over 9 weeks, but it probably would have taken longer had I done nothing.


It is also a good idea to avoid offers that make you list friends email addresses to participate. All I had to do was complete 5 offers, that ranged from $1 to $10 to sign up for. Over all I spent about $35. Another potential catch is that if you sign up for an offer over $600 you have to submit a W9 form for IRS gift reasons. I looked into the integrity of the site I was using and it was reputable. I saved all of their emails and "Terms and Conditions" policies to make sure. It ranks in the top 100 most visited sites in America. Overall, grueling process, but it was worth it.