iPhone

If you recall, a while back, I made an offer to give away a free iPhone in an attempt to test the "free iPhone giveaway service." I eventually canceled the game because not enough people were involved... but I just checked and there are at least twice as many participants now, so I might as well re-open the offer.

Read the original post for the details... and remember that you must complete an offer. Only one person has successfully done that so far! Here is our current status:

**FINAL UPDATE**: We're stuck at five registrations and I'm going to call it quits; not one of them has completed a qualifying offer. I think that we've demonstrated here that these sort of offers are a no-go. Sorry, folks, no iPhone. :(

**SECOND UPDATE**: We're up to five registrations, but not one of them has completed a qualifying offer. Read the fine print and be careful to follow instructions. We'll never get our phone if this keeps up.

**UPDATE**: We've had three brave souls register with the affiliate site already, and it's only been about 24 hours since my first post. However, no one has linked to this post from their own website. Let me reiterate: If you help our investigation out, you will be registered in the drawing for the free iPhone we all work to earn.

You can help by either:

1. Registering and completing an offer through our referral link (2 entries in the drawing)
2. Linking to this post from your own website or blog (1 entry)

The first 14 individuals who complete offers will recieve iTunes Gift Cards as well as their entries. Read on for the details.

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I wavered about posting this, but I think it's a good idea.

You've seen the sites before; they've been around for years. They ask you to complete affiliate offers then get other friends of yours to do the same; when you do, the "free stuff" site gets a micro-kickback from the affiliate company. If you manage to complete the offers and get enough others to do so, too, the site gives you a free gift.

The coolness of Apple hardware has made for a number of these sites, offering things like iPods, Mac minis and, now, of course, the iPhone. I found one such site and took a look at it - unlike its predecessors, there were no flashing ads, no annoying stuff, just clear instructions and an honest take on the whole affiliate-offer process.

So, what the heck? I signed up. I was able, in the span of ten minutes, to sign up, get confimation and complete an affiliate offer. Two days later, when the site showed that they had received notice that I had completed the affiliate's offer, I cancelled my membership and was never charged a dime.

I completed the BetZip offer. BetZip is an online gaming site that asked me to join as a $20/month member of their Player's Club. My free trial membership lasted all of three days and both the sign-in and cancellation process were simple. Now, I'm not suggesting that you sign up planing on cancelling (because you may be interested in the BetZip Player's Club or any of the other affiliate offers), but I want to point out that, from where I am sitting, this entire operation seems to be on the up-and-up.

Of course, as a journalist, I would like to find out for sure. So, here's what I propose:

1. At the end of this post, there will be a referral link to the Free iPhone site. If you want to play along, click that link.
2. You will need to create an account for yourself and you should read all the terms and conditions carefully.
3. Once you have a membership, complete an offer. I recommend the BetZip offer, but there are many others, some of which may be for services you have interest in.
4. I will keep updating this post with information about how far along my application is - as of now, I need 12 referals to get a free 4GB iPhone. (Actually, the award will be a $500 Apple Gift Card.)
5. When the offer is completed, I will award the participants as follows:

Everyone who has completed an offer through my referral link (up to the first 14 completed offers) will receive a $5 iTunes Gift Card and one entry in the Grand Prize Drawing (see below)

Everyone who has commented to this thread with a comment pointing to a post on their own weblog which points back to this post will receive one entry in the Grand Prize Drawing

When the offer is complete and I receive the $500 Apple Gift Card, we will hold a random Grand Prize Drawing and award the Gift Card to one lucky MacMove reader.

In other words, in the name of Investigative Journalism, **we're going to give away almost $100 in iTunes Gift Cards and at least $500 on an Apple Store Gift Card** (assuming the Free iPhone site is legit).

You can receive an iTunes Gift Card by being one of the first MacMove Readers to complete an affiliate offer and you can enter the Grand Prize Drawing by either completing an offer or by linking to this post on your own weblog (and posting the URL of that blog post as a comment to this post), or both. Whew... that's a little confusing. :)

So, get cracking. I will post updates here as we go. Here is the [link](http://www.snipurl.com/freefone).

I realize that this is all a little convoluted so, once again, just to be clear: **MacMove is *not* going to keep the iPhone and, on top of that, we're going to give away iTunes Gift Cards just for your participation.** You stand to win an iPhone here, along with the ability to get your own friends to complete offers to help you get another one.