iPad Tester Scam Continues

Test and keep an iPad FREE! That’s the promise made in various forms online. Today it was in the form of a tagged photo on Facebook. The photo also includes “details apply. itestipad.com.” But is it really possible to test and keep an iPad? For most people, no. For the brave few who might actually jump through all the hoops required to receive one, it will end up costing them far more than they would have paid for a new iPad. And even then, they still probably won’t get one.

This is nothing more than a modern bait-and-switch scam. They lure you in with a “free” iPad, with only a few minor “details” which end up being some pretty major details. You can read more on the scam here, which we covered a few months ago. These scammers appear to use social media for the bulk of their marketing. They’ll add people to Facebook events, Facebook groups, or tag them in photos related to this scam, which point to url’s forwarded to a different site.

In today’s incarnation, the photo being circulated lists the domain itestipad.com. That site is merely forwarded to gadgetspoint.net, which is where we see all of the details associated with this offer.

Let’s take a look at the domains a little closer:
itestipad.com was created on 4/28/2012 by an unknown entity, due to privacy protection.
gadgetspoint.net was created on 4/17/2012 by United Web Survey from India and hosted in Jamaica. (See below)

The scam here is that you must complete 13 “rewards” offers, depending on which part of their Terms you read. Many of these are expensive, impossible to complete, or rely on you recruiting your friends who must sign up for offers themselves. In the end, it becomes an expensive burden that no one would want to endure.

Further reading of their terms shows that if they decide you violated their terms, even after you’ve received your gift, you agree to ship it back to them! They also reserve the right to give you a different gift they deem of “comparable value.” In fact, their terms state that if you even mention their phone number online, you can be disqualified:

“…posting information on a website, forum, blog, or auction that has to do with manipulating the website or “canceling the offers,” including but not limited to cancellation phone numbers, cancellation time frames and any encouragement or direction to cancel the offers after signing-up with the applicable advertisers;”

Should they decide to put your account on hold, they won’t notify you. Section VI, B2 of their terms states: We are not responsible for notifying you about a change in your account status. This means you will continue signing up for offers, not realizing that you’ve already been disqualified.

In the end, the most likely outcome is that you’ll sign up for a few “offers” only to realize you’ve just given relentless telemarketers permission to hound you, and you’ve signed up for things you don’t want or need. And you’ll have nothing to show for it.

Do yourself a favor and read our earlier article – and forget about these phony iPad test and keep scams.