Have you been offered a deal so good that you just had to
grab it right away? The internet is rife with such promises — cash prizes, free
gadgets, trips abroad.
Most of the time, you are warned that such offers are available only for a limited time or until all available stocks or slots have been taken. For any normal person, the first thing they would usually do is panic before they go on a mad dash to claim this prize. Whether it would be answering a multi-page survey or giving away personal information, people will gladly do almost anything for freebies without thinking twice about it.
For the really shady operations, they might even require people to give away their credit card information and to read through a long boring "terms and conditions" document. What happens after usually isn't pretty. Charges start pouring in for things like admin and membership fees and bank accounts are drained until they barely empty.
The first thing anyone would usually do would be to complain to the shady company they've given their information away to. Unfortunately, the only thing you will usually get are empty promises or even complete silence. You find yourself complaining to the bank or your credit card company next, only to find that everything the shady company did was legal since you agreed to their terms and conditions.
There is nothing much you can do then except to regret rushing into something you did not fully understand. The takeaway from all this?
One, if it's too good to be true, it most definitely is.
Two, understand whatever it is you're getting into. Read the rules and the terms and conditions. Once you feel like you understand everything, read it again.
