Have you gotten a pop-up offering a free laptop, big-screen TV or other expensive "free" gifts? You register and complete an interminable survey to qualify. At the end of the survey you must sign up for three or more products or services from the company's "sponsors" varying from life insurance, NY Times subscription, pharmaceuticals, gourmet coffee, Disney storybooks, gift cards from Walmart... Nothing that you would particularly want. Whether you complete the survey or not, within 24 hours your e-mail is swamped with spam from these "sponsors". Do you get the "free" gift? Naah. You're not eligible since you didn't sign up for any of the sponsor's offers.
To top that, your e-mail is passed on to other "consumer survey" companies so they can capture your information.
The companies running this scheme are paid well by the participating sponsors. In return, the sponsors receive the e-mail, phone number, and address of anyone registering for the free gift.
The three companies investigated so far are:
Direct to Consumer Interactive, Inc. (shopperssavingcenter.com)
950 Walnut Bottom Road
15-212
Carlisle, PA 17013
directtoconsumer@gmail.com
and
PremiumProductsOnline.com
13900 JogRoad, Suite 203-251
Delray Beach, FL 33446
Customer Service pr@companywebmaster.net
and
Red Turtle Investments, LLC (freeproductvouchers.com)
5348 Vegas Drive, #472
Las Vegas, NV 89108
G. Ward (webmaster@redturtleinvestments.com)
How do you get out of this trap? You can't. They've already released your information to their sponsors. And maybe have sold it to more nefarious organizations.
So, update your spam filters and boycott their sponsors. For all the good that will do. You could try flaming these companies. But they won't really care.
