Paybox.me, scam or not?

So, according to their blog, Paybox is planning to launch person to person transactions soon. I was really interested in checking out their person to person transactions so I poked a few good friends about it. My basic thought was well, this is free money, and it is for testing a site and a function, so why not right?

A good friend helped me checked out some stuff about Paybox that I wished existed when I first joined a week ago (a number of those links are dated 25 September, about 3-4 days after I joined the site, you have no idea how annoying that is). These are the things that scream "WRONG" about Paybox according to such sites.

1. Their TOS says they can change their TOS anytime they like

Considering that I see this quite often in most of the TOS of sites I join, I'm not adverse to it. Especially the bit about no warning.

2. Their currency is in a fictional currency, i.e. Paybox dollars

This was mentioned in their TOS, which I did read before I signed up. While this may seem dodgy to you, the thing is Paybox bills themselves as money you use for small businesses and the like. The first thing that came to mind was e-currency ala ACash, GCash (from Gaiaonline) and other game premium currency, so it was not something I was unused to. I was actually quite ok with the idea that they were going to be trading in a fictional currency (MMO games can be quite the influence, as you can see).

3. They can terminate your account if they feel like it

I facepalm at this, I really do. This is because if you read the TOS of every site you sign up for, (including Paypal) they can and will do this. Sometimes it's arbitrary. Most times it's for good reasons (violating other parts of TOS etc etc). So again, not something I find enough to warn me off the site.

The above are things that for me, are not really that big a deal. I signed up with Paybox via my spam email (which is also semi-legit, just to be on the safe side) and they do not have any of my financial details. There's a chance that this site will be a hit, there's a huge chance it'll fall flat. Truth to be told, hey, if I can help out another dot.com dreamer, why not, right?

One of the reasons why I'm usually skeptical of beta sites is that they rarely post roadmaps of where they intend to go. Paybox on the other hand, did. They also seem to be hiring staff, so in my opinion that's always a good thing. However, there are things that this payment processor "Paypal Challenger" wannabe is doing that raises the warning signals for me:

1. No contact given

At this point in time, the only way to contact them is.. zilch. They have a blog, but you cannot post comments on the blog (which I tried as I wanted to give them a suggestion). Rather, you have to wait for their forum to come up before you can comment anything. If ever.

2. Things are moving suspiciously fast

Usually if your roadmap says that your site will be up in three months, and your site comes up in two or even one and a half month before, I can understand. Having worked for a website development company, I understand flexible timelines are quite possible. However, when you say that your person-to-person transaction is going to happen only in March and you're telling me that your service is going to be up by September the year before, I'm skeptical. Quite skeptical.

3. Who is being hired and how?

As per the subject. So far everything is via their website, but I'm suspicious because a company excited about growing would also take pains to show that they ARE growing. Which they seem to be not.

So my verdict? Until as time they can prove themselves, I'm not going to promote Paybox unless my friends are willing to take a risk. I'm really interested in playing with their transaction system, but I admit I am kiasu enough that I'd only transact with people I know and whom I can contact via IM. :D Which for now, means none cause I don't trust this site enough to ask them to do it. :3

EasyHits4u.com

Stumbled upon this while I was looking through mylot again. Someone was talking about EasyHits4u.com which is a traffic exchange site. Basically you pay people to visit your site and vice versa. It's a cheaper option compared to paid-to-click sites or using conventional Google Adsense to get people to come to your site.

Or so they say at least.

EasyHits4u has a few features that I quite like. They have a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio. Basically for 1:1, for every 1 website you view for 20 seconds, you'll get one credit, which you can then use to purchase additional views for your website. A 2:1 ratio is for every 2 websites you view for 15 seconds. Right now I'm seeing if it'll work the way they say. I've already come across at least ONE interesting site out of 11. The rest are the usual affiliate links kind of site.

For now though, sleep!

Now this is interesting

Apparently Paybox.me had such good response that they're actually planning to launch their services earlier. To that end, they're looking to hire web designers and other types to get their site up and running.

A quick summary of Paybox.me from what I understand so far: They're looking to lead the way in the next generation of online payment processors. I think I may have misunderstood their aims previously; I don't think they plan to supplant Paypal, but it does seem like they are planning to sell online currency and the like, so we'd be looking at them selling game currency ala Offgamers.

It'll be interesting to see what they roll out, especially since they promise over the next few weeks that they'll be implementing a basic transaction system soon. In case you're interested in checking it out, here, have a URL! Might be worth checking out, as they're offering a $50 bonus to whoever signs up. I get an extra $5 for referring you.

Paybox.Me

Shortly after I joined up with NeoBux, I came across this ad for Paybox.Me, which claims to be an online payment processor. From what I understand, they're currently in pre-Alpha, and are basically aiming to be PayPal's competition. They're so new, launch date is about a year away.

I signed up because I was intrigued by their "newcomers get starting USD50 in their account" gimmick. It turns out that PayBox.me has some pretty strict rules: You need to be active pretty much most of the time (if you go a week without logging in they'll terminate you).

We'll see if they pay me later. So far, just logging in every day and completing their surveys have netted me around USD 73 (in three days). Hmm...

Also, I have no idea when they intend to pay out. Just to let you know in advance. For all I know, they could be paying me only next year. Or something.

MyLot Tasks

MyLot.com is one of those sites where they pay you to participate. With over 210k users and rising, it's quite popular cause there's a lot of discussions being created all the time, so there's always something for you to answer or participate in. With a relatively high payout of USD 10 (when you consider most of the time you're probably earning pennies per day), it encourages you to check back as if you don't, your earnings will be wiped out (I lost USD 2++ after leaving the site for a few months due to college holidays).

They have a new feature called Tasks, where users of myLot can posts tasks that they want to do. There's a set time for these tasks to be completed, which is fair, in my opinion. I'm leaving a comment in this post to see if the tasks really work. Yes, this is a test post to see if tasks really work. Will let you know later if I get credited for doing this.

Quick intro!

Hi all!

Welcome to Geminianeyes' aka Naoko's blog of adventures into the wonderfully sticky world of dubious moneys! I aim to review and feedback on different sites, mainly:

Paid to Click ad sites.
This includes but is not limited to (all links are referrals):

Clixsense
NeoBux
Hits4Pay

Communicate to earn
Such as myLot.

If you'd like to know more about the person behind the blog, check out my own blog, Reach Into Your Soul.