The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has handed a stern warning out to the company responsible for Paidoffers.co.uk over claims of misleading users.
Just one complaint was all it took for the board to look into on-site calls to action which urged users to earn instant cash rewards by participating in sponsored offers.
Paidoffers.co.uk, which is operated by online customer acquisition firm Submission Technology Ltd, displayed messages stating that users could “Earn up to £25 a day” after registering their details and completing various online forms.
ASA’s adjudicators decided that due to the unprecedented time it took for the money to filter through, it fell foul of CAP Code rules 3.1 for misleading advertising, 3.7 for substantiation, 3.11 for exaggeration and 20.4 for homework schemes, which requires marketers to detail an honest view of the experience of fellow participants.
ASA said the site would also have to pull a number of its current messages to reflect a more transparent version of the service on offer.
Misleading users
Site messages at Paidoffers.co.uk state that consumers can offer rewards “in your own time when you want and where you want” by completing offers such as signing up to a company newsletter or clicking a link. Money is generated by advertiser commissions paid after the offer is completed, which is split by the company and its user.
A typical participant is asked to complete 26 tasks, which mostly involves agreeing to share personal information for marketing purposes, and to work their way through them to earn up to £1,000, payable via PayPal or Amazon vouchers.
Cash rewards are always subject to clearance by the advertiser and Paidoffers.co.uk told the ASA there was a chance that some may take a ‘considerable amount of time’ to be processed. The authority claims that messages saying that users could earn up to £25 a day were leading them to believe that money could be earned on a day-to-day basis, while data provided by Paidoffers.co.uk showed that it would take between 176-509 days for they surveys to be completed and a payment to be made.
After a lengthy investigation, the ASA has ordered the removal of a number of earning claims on the website while advising Submission Technology Ltd to offer evidence of supporting any promises made in future endeavours.
A crossing of wires?
Based in the UK, Submission Technology Ltd runs a number of sites similar to Paidoffers.co.uk in Britain, including Cashback.co.uk, Paidsurveys.uk.com and Greasypalm.co.uk, which all offer a share of commissions generated by users obtaining a certain offer.
The company professes to be one of the UK’s leading affiliate publishers but also offers lead generation and sales services via a pay-by-performance-marketing network.
Previous analysis of Paidoffers.co.uk points towards an incentivised lead generation platform which enables big brands such as Citroen gain newsletter subscribers and other points of contact.