Swagbucks have ripped me off.

Leo2020

If you wanna to be top of Google then yeah you gonna need to do a lot more!

Not sure how much you know about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) but you should start with lots of good content.

DaveTheGeordie

Leo2020 wrote: »

If you wanna to be top of Google then yeah you gonna need to do a lot more!

Not sure how much you know about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) but you should start with lots of good content.

Thank you. I know of it - but that's just it. I only know of it, not about it. I want to write my articles and criticisms mostly. After it is mostly done I will go through SEO and minor tweaks.

Lilyann

DaveTheGeordie wrote: »

Thank you. I know of it - but that's just it. I only know of it, not about it. I want to write my articles and criticisms mostly. After it is mostly done I will go through SEO and minor tweaks.

I write a lot of SEO, your articles could form part of your SEO; using keywords to push your site further up the google listings by attracting interested browsers.

If you have enough interesting and factual info, contact details, some help guides, shared experiences etc... Raters at Lionbridge and Leapforce will mark your page well and you'll be on your way.

Good luck!

DaveTheGeordie

Lilyann wrote: »

I write a lot of SEO, your articles could form part of your SEO; using keywords to push your site further up the google listings by attracting interested browsers.

If you have enough interesting and factual info, contact details, some help guides, shared experiences etc... Raters at Lionbridge and Leapforce will mark your page well and you'll be on your way.

Good luck!

Thank you. That is great information.

DaveTheGeordie

Swagbucks got back to me through the BBB. This was their response:

'customer had been cheating swagbucks. we have looked into this case several times and we will not reactivate this account.'

To which I responded:

'I do not accept Swagbucks response and will continue to pursue this matter. I thoroughly contest Swagbucks decision.

2 Months, daily and therefore monthly bonuses completed perfectly, i.e. several hours per day of labour some days - completed honestly. I have not used any automation or third party software.

Poor Swagbucks standards:
- No email sent on my accounts closure. Whilst not literally, it is not such a taking of liberty to consider my time on Swagbucks something akin to 'working' for them, considering my time spent, regularity over a period of 2 months and labour put in and literally performing tasks in exchange for currency. Since we are dealing with real currency I find this a highly mercenary and insulting position on their part. You cannot treat people as disposable like that.

- I have not searched by automation. I have not used third party software. As such you should not be able to prove this. I have heard of others being accused of doing so, and being deactivated then losing money. Some of whom also pursued through the BBB and were awarded their earnings. You have been wrong before. I am serious: you need to check your identification of 'automatiom' or 'third party software' process if you have a genuine belief. If it is one person on your team doing the process, you need to check for human error. I do not believe you do have genuine cause, as you have changed your argument in our later communications which I will go on to explain to the BBB shortly.

- You deactivated my account and then offered me the possibility of creating a new account. This is highly suspicious and I cannot believe in good conscience that a sensible company or a company with a genuine concern would have such a policy. No respectable company bans someone they genuinely believe to be a cheat - and then offers them a new account. Unless, they can identify that the account was hacked. Bot in any video game and your account is dead. Steal from work and you are fired. Your behaviour here is suspicious and very 'cowboy company' , 'dodgy builder' esque.

- You stonewalled me after 2 emails initially. Effectively a 'tough !!!!' attitude. Apologies for my language BBB. When I posted on your facebook page you directed me to contact compliance because you did not like negative public feedback. To which I replied they would no longer communicate with me. To which you replied the same non-personal parroted message. You exercised poor communication and you effectively created a catch-22 situation.

- It was only after a huge email and having to explain all of this again, and my strong (but polite) suggestion you no longer ignore me that compliance would address me again.

- You then displayed shameless sophistry in changing your argument, no longer to be about 'searching by automation' or 'third party software' but to 'missing at least a couple of search captchas every day'. So according to yourselves, for 2 months straight I have missed 2+ captchas per day. At first, whilst incorrect on your part, I thought you may have had a genuine cause on your part. I put it down to something technical in your identification process I did not understand. That was a benefit of the doubt. I did not really believe it to be so. Now I know you are frankly lying. The internet is my lifeline. I am sociaphobic. I spend all day on the internet. Seach captchas, as you are aware: show instantly. There is no chance in hell that I have for 2 months straight, missed 2+ search captchas per day. Even if I were AFK after searching: again, they show instantly. I would notice and enter the code. I cannot believe I have missed a single search on captcha 1 single day, nevermind 2+ for 2 months straight. You are being ridiculous.

- You then additionally changed the argument to missed captchas on SBTV. To this I did and still do freely admit. However, to put this into context for the BBB: Swagbucks set daily targets for a bonus. One day the target may be 70 swagbucks, another day it may be 120 swagbucks. A survey will typically reward 70 Swagbucks and take only 20 minutes some days. Other days we do not qualify for Swagbucks. Swagbucks offers/offerwalls do typically not credit. As such, due to being irritated by this I, like many relied heavily on Swagbucks TV (SBTV). SBTV rewards 3 swagbucks per 10 videos watched. Each video, plus advert before hand take around 2 minutes to complete.
As such there are days for Swagbucks users where there is a strong reliance on SBTV for points and meeting the daily bonus, and it may take literally 3, 4, 5, 6 hours of streaming SBTV in order to complete the daily bonus, literally. Considering this, at the risk of appearing self-important I would like to quote myself in what I originally wrote back to Swagbucks regarding this: 'Do you genuinely expect people to watch - as in to the standard of staring at the video screen for 4, 5, 6 hours of the same videos of SBTV for days on end at 3 swagbucks per 10 videos, without opening other browser windows or naturally get distracted? If you do, I think you need to ban 95% of the Swagbucks community and put yourselves out of business'.
Please bear in mind BBB. Everyone will miss SBTV captchas. Banning people who rely on SBTV is extremely petty and over-zealous.
I then further wrote: 'I did watch each video to the standard that I was present, the sound was always on and I even did spend hours staring at the video window. You cannot reasonably expect people not to multitask, i.e. open other windows. Again I will remind you that I would not need to do so if offers would credit.'
This confirms a slave labour policy on Swagbucks part.

Another criticism on Swagbucks rationalism I would like to raise here at this point, regarding missed captchas should not be overlooked. Whether SBTV captchas, search captchas or any kind, and whether in the morning, the evening or in the middle of the night, missed captchas do not equal cheating.
Missed captchas may well be cheating but missed captchas only tell you - you have identified missed captchas. This is a personal opinion you have projected into the matter. If I (which I did not) miss 70% of captchas, that does not tell you that I am using automated software. That tells you strictly and only: that I have missed captchas. Subjectively you may identify this as exploiting. That does not make it so.
I use two screens. One 17 inch monitor in front of me, which I would go through daily clicks on cashback sites on. Another 42 inch TV to my right which doubles up as a second monitor. My swagbucks browser would be on my right - on a 42 inch, hard to miss screen. Yet, me being me, I still did miss captchas. This doesn't make me a cheat. It means I have rubbish concentration and may be a bit of a moron.

I'm truly insulted you have the nerve to call me a cheat, accuse me of automation/third party software and take what I've effectively slave laboured for for 2 months away from me.

I was instruced by the BBB to offer a 'middle ground' agreement. As I simply haven't cheated, and I've identified several rational flaws in your reasoning; I'm afraid I can't give up anything.

Again: 1. Apology, explicitly for incorrectly accusing me of cheating and stress caused. 2. Vouchers or money owed, or account with previously earned points reinstated.'

Leo2020

RE: Automation

There is no way that SB know that you have used automation just by your viewing/clicking habits. I understand how it is possible to automate clicks – I would like to point out I don't do it, just I am a bit of techie so I understand how it can be done.

Because I understand how it can be done I know that SB can not be 100% sure you weren't clicking to the next vid yourself. This is why you are presented with a CAPTCHA – this is the only thing they can use to detect automation. You can not easily automate a response to the CAPTCHA.

I would imagine that SB have some sort of threshold in regards to the amount of missed CAPTCHAs – over a certain amount they deem you as using automation software.

With searching the following would probably trigger an accusation:

• Lots of searches within a very short space of time – for example within seconds of each other as this is not what most people do when searching
• Searching but not clicking on links – this would suggest automation or at least someone trying to gain points by random searches
• Missed CAPTCHAS

DaveTheGeordie

Thanks for your comment

Leo2020 wrote: »

RE: Automation

There is no way that SB know that you have used automation just by your viewing/clicking habits. I understand how it is possible to automate clicks – I would like to point out I don't do it, just I am a bit of techie so I understand how it can be done.

Because I understand how it can be done I know that SB can not be 100% sure you weren't clicking to the next vid yourself. This is why you are presented with a CAPTCHA – this is the only thing they can use to detect automation. You can not easily automate a response to the CAPTCHA.

This is what I'm making my case on, and as I'm certain that I have not used automation or additional software, I know that they have no such evidence. They can only have subjective conjecture.

Leo2020 wrote: »

I would imagine that SB have some sort of threshold in regards to the amount of missed CAPTCHAs – over a certain amount they deem you as using automation software.

Possibly. Probably generally. I'm not sure that actually happened in my case though. I believe they are skimming a small number of people from the site and profiting malisciously at their expense. I believe this because I have been researching and found similar cases recently.

I don't actually believe they do this to the majority of people. It may be something like .5% but I'm pretty sure they are doing this. I read a post just this evening and it pretty much described my scenario. This was written last year. I've found older posts from 2010 describing similar again.

Also their argument wasn't about captchas at first. It was generic, non-specific 'searching by automation' , 'third party software'. It was after over a month of me pestering them and holding my ground that they started to use the captcha argument and also switch to SBTV. Which makes me consider have they looked for flaws to pinpoint after the initial deactivation?

Update:

I am certain swagbucks are not acting professionally. I have started gathering testimonals and researching other sources of information into this matter. Reading other testimonals has only further motivated me now and I will share them.

When people start to see hundreds of them on my blog site, I hope people will start to take me more seriously.

I want to get Swagbucks literally inspected, at their offices. I am certain that when relevant IT based trading standards inspections take place, they would find unwarranted account deactivations and as such, illegal real money withholding from individuals. I have been wondering if the FBI would cover that area.

DANCINGTUTU

Why do they even offer SBTV if they deactivate your account for watching it??? They wait to deactivate your account AFTER you have accumulated a bunch of points. NO WARNING what so ever! If you start getting "CAPTCHA"s (a 3 letter code to get your points) you better beware!!! You will probably be deactivated soon! They need to be reported to the Better Business Bureau by more people so they straighten up.