The old adage goes: “there’s no free lunch”…and there are certainly no free Xbox 360s or iPods, either. Yet points shopping websites (or PTZ in online slang) profit from promising free electronics and expensive prizes simply for answering daily opinion questions. Of course, those of us who have been on the Internet for some years know that these offers are never what they seem, and PTZ shopping sites are no different. Unfortunately, younger audiences aren’t as scrutinizing, and promises of free electronics they don’t have the money to buy can be too good to pass up. In this article we explore how these websites take advantage of teens and rarely (if ever) deliver on their promises.
The Set-Up
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Points shopping websites suck people in with promises of free prizes for answering questions. From the moment a new user lands on a points shopping website, they are bombarded with pictures of the hottest selling electronics (like the Sony PS3 and the Nintendo Wii) and told that getting them for free is easy, they just need to answer enough survey questions to gain the points. Once they have enough points, they can redeem them for any prize they’d like. Most even sweeten the deal by offering a few thousand points just for signing up. Simple enough, right?
These websites succeed by playing into two basic human desires: the chance to beat the system and to get something for nothing. The idea that you just stumbled across an exclusive gateway to all the most exciting prizes without having to spend a dime is too provocative to ignore. It almost seems too good to be true, and unfortunately, points shopping websites almost always are just that.
The Scam
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Though points shopping sites make all the promises in the world about how easy it will be to redeem your points for any prize you want, users soon find that it’s never that simple. In fact, a “redemption” is a once a month ordeal in which the website randomly decides to let users in to claim prizes with no prior notification. This sends everyone online at the same time in a mad dash to claim something before they’re all “sold out” (which typically happens in just a minute or two), dropping your chances of actually getting what you want down to near zero. There is no way to directly redeem your points for a guaranteed prize the way you expected, just a painfully low chance that you will actually get the opportunity to claim what you’ve been working for.
The scam is that most people don’t find out until afterward that they have made the site rich by wasting long periods of time viewing advertisements and answering survey questions for market research. Anti-points shopping site Lockerz-Scam.com describes how the sites guarantee profit, even though most users never see a prize. “In the span of the 2 or 4 weeks, chances are all the videos have been watched and [questions] been answered,” they explain. “Since your chance of getting a prize is already exponentially low, they don’t have to worry about losing money because there’s a good chance you already quit by the time you endured 2 redemptions.”
Lockerz
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By far the best known points shopping website is Lockerz.com. A quick Google search of their name brings up a titanic list of scam warnings and negative reviews about their service and prize redemption process. With so many active users on the site, the prizes often sell out in under a minute and the rest are told to try again next time. Making matters even more convoluted, the site refuses to announce the exact date and time of its future redemptions. Although as a user you are expected to log in and view their ads and answer questions every day, you are never sure when you will be able to pick a prize until it’s too late.
Some users who get into the redemption process early enough to win something report having problems actually receiving the prizes they order. ArticlesBase reported on a user who was lucky enough to win a PS3 from Lockerz and was told it would be there in 2-4 weeks. However when the time came to send the item, Lockerz reported being sold out and claimed to need another month or two to get more of the items. “What if this is a tactic by Lockerz by saying they are out of stock and shipment is always coming but never does?” the article questions.
What About Those Who Get Their Prize?
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Of course, Lockerz and similar sites are not a complete scam, as there are a very few people who have managed to beat the system and squeeze their order in before anyone else. Every once in a while someone will go on YouTube and film “proof” that Lockerz works because they received their prize. What they all tend to ignore are the millions of other users who were shut out of the monthly redemption and receive nothing.
In mathematics, this is known as the “person who” fallacy. Pointing to a single person or extremely small group who beat the overwhelming odds against them and taking it to mean that the odds don’t matter is a mistake. An example of this is seeing a very old man smoking a cigarette and concluding that cigarettes don’t really kill you, despite the fact that the majority of smokers don’t live past their 70th birthday. Lockerz is not a scam because noone gets their prizes – a very small minority reportedly do. The scam is in the way they promise easy, guaranteed prizes for points,and never reveal the extreme unlikelihood that you will ever receive a thing from them.
Selling Your Opinions
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Sites like Lockerz make their money by selling your opinions and demographic information to market research firms. By asking their users seemingly innocuous questions about their preferences and opinions, Lockerz can generate valuable information about the desires and motivations of their sizable user-base. Lockerz can also sell off your demographic information – how old you are, where you live in the country, etc. This is information that companies will pay for on a regular basis to learn how they can improve their sales messages; ironically this is also how a website like Lockerz profits from its promise of free gifts.
Targeting Young Audiences
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Points shopping websites are definitely not for kids, but many of them appear to intentionally target adolescents and teenagers with their deceptive tactics and alluring promises. One of the reasons why these sites seem so attractive to the younger age groups is because preteens and teens usually don’t have their own money, let alone a credit card to make independent purchases. Yet they still desire all the latest gadgets and electronics. Points shopping sites offer hope – a way to get the things you want without having to enter a card number or spend a dime. Just spend a few hours in front of the computer clicking away – they promise – and all of these things can be yours. What an empty promise it turns out to be.
