Introduction
A couple of readers wrote in to me asking if any other people have been shut down by Extrabux. After some back and forth, it seems that the common denominator is that they referred their spouse. I couldn’t figure out why they would do that until I read their referral structure:
How does it work?Every time you refer a friend to Extrabux, you get a $5 cash bonus. Plus, you’ll earn 5% on the cash back your friends earn. For example, if your friend earns $100 cash back, you’ll earn $10 ($5 bonus + 5% on your friend’s earnings).
So it seems the “game” here is to refer your spouse and just use your spouse’s account to make purchases so you’ll get an extra 5% on the cash back. Well it seems Extrabux must have some fraud detection in place (maybe same address or IP address,) because they’ve shut down their accounts and keeping the cash back on both accounts. They’re still going back and forth with Extrabux, but most likely they’re not going to win that fight.
Lessons Learned
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose playing this game. They took a risk and lost. Genius on their part though. If I had known, I might have tried it too and this would haven’t have been a reader story, but the story of my life.