Do you think these sites like "Free MacBook" really work?

No. I think they’re phoney.

But I’ve never visited.

stuff like that ends up in my junk mail, and I’ve never visited but I’m guessing it’s just a scam to get your contact info or access to your system.

Overall no.

I work with a girl who got a “free” ipod. Only it wasn’t really free because she had to sign up for a bunch of free trials and magazine subscriptions.

Probably not worth the risk.

Years ago, I participated in a number of sites like this. I got two photo iPods, several iPod Shuffles and one video iPod. The most expensive item I got was a Mac iBook G4.

To get these items, I was required to sign up for a service of some sort: Blockbuster, Netflix, Stamps.com, etc. You are free to cancel the service after one month if you want. Additionally, you need to refer several friends to the “free_____.com” site and get them to sign up for a service (which they are free to cancel after a month as well). Because my friends were doing me a favor, I paid for their one month service for them.

The items don’t end up being entirely free. But, considering the fees I paid for myself and my friends, I think it’s a great deal to pay around $60—$90 for a $400 gadget. The iBook G4 cost me close to $200 in service fees, but it was a $1,000 laptop!

I lost patience with these sites because it was a lot of work to find friends who hadn’t participated already and because the service fees started getting expensive. These sites are legit, but they’re a little harder and more expensive to complete these days. You’ll still end up getting the item for a cheaper price if you’re willing to put in the time and work.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Fortunately for you Dr. D. the sites with which you dealt held up their end of the deal. So if TIH uses those same sites then hopefully her experience will be the same.

But I’ve read reports of fly by night sites which either failed to deliver or found some technicality upon which to disallow it AFTER the person had done all the work and enlisted all their friends.

Personally, I wouldn’t participate, but you’ll have to make your own decision.

Caveat Emptor

Not likely. A guy I know won a ‘free’ iPod from one of those places once.

He actually had to pay about 30AUD total from all of the ‘free offers’ to get through it. But he has the iPod.

There is a site I use called swagbucks, and it’s worked for me. There’s no credit card or phone number involved, basically you use it as a search engine instead of Google, and occasionally you’ll earn a “swagbuck”. They can be saved up and used to purchase rewards. So far I’ve earned $25 dollars in Amazon gift cards. However, it takes a really long time to save up, and the rewards seem unreasonably priced. But if you’d like to try it anyway, (pardon me for spamming), I can send you my referral link.