Small Industry - Big Problems

 

"Get Paid To", compared to other money making programs such as autosurfs, other investment programs, surveys etc, can be described as a "small" industry with not a lot of money to gain, especially for members from "non-search" countries. This small industry of ours is however, faced with big problems from time to time.

Unsustainable programs, runner PO's, programs not paying on time, changing owners without sufficient prior notification, programs shutting down without paying members, searches, 0iframes, forced downloads, virus and nasties are some of them.

One problem this industry has been having for sometime, but hardly ever discussed is becoming a bigger problem by the day. Oh no! Not another problem you say. But unfortunately for us, we are faced with another big problem which is becoming an ever increasing threat to all honest programs as well as our industry. Simply put, it's "script piracy".

One of the most common scripts used by PTR programs is Cash Crusader. When sometime last year we had the idea of adding a pinned thread to the general discussion area of Get Paid Forum, listing out programs running on pirated scripts, we never realized the amount of programs that are actually using pirated scripts. Since opening the pinned list, instead of removing programs from it for finally making an attempt to buy the script by the program owner rather than using a pirated script, I personally have been dismayed to note that I keep adding more and more programs to it. By now, there are over a hundred programs using pirated scripts and we are sure, the list is not totally complete and there are still programs out there that are using pirated scripts that we have not come across.

So many questions come to my mind about these people who open programs on pirated scripts.

  • If a person who intends to start a program does not even start it in an honest way, what is to stop him/her from closing shop without a moments notice to members or paying what is owed to them?

  • How long will such programs pay, if they pay at all?

  • Can a member trust his/her real information with a program owner who run their program/s on stolen scripts?

  • What is to stop such unethical program owners from selling out the email addresses they harvest?

  • If they are not prepared to "invest" a little capital to begin a program honestly, how can we expect them to carry out the business honestly? ethically?

    • Let's now concentrate on the harm these programs do to honest programs and members:

  • Since there are pirated scripts available, this has resulted in unethical people using them to open countless number of programs. Some owners have multiple programs using pirated scripts. As more and more of these programs are opened, our little industry gets oversaturated and cause harm to both honest programs and members.

  • Some who are new fall prey to programs of these unethical owners as most programs running on unlicensed scripts offer high paying links which draws in members (especially new members). Members then start supporting these programs that offer high paying links leaving the low paying honest programs behind.

  • Unlicensed programs also falsify the amount paid out most of the time, which again draws the members. But such members end up not being paid and this in turn lowers their faith and trust in programs that really do pay and the industry as a whole.

  • Unlicensed programs mostly undersell advertising which in turn makes it difficult for the honest programs to compete (make sales). Members are paid to read emails. If there are no purchases of advertising, there are no paid emails to send to the member base. If there are no emails to send, the members will lose interest in honest programs and finally, the honest programs will end up being closed as there is no point in paying hosting and other overheads to keep the program running without generating any income or having members.

  • Unlicensed programs also run a lot of junk which also harms the entire industry as a whole. Some programs we came across have 0iframes, auto searches and other nasties in them. Therefore, these programs are not only running them unethically, but earning out of members without their knowledge in an unethical manner as well.

  • Unlicensed scripts often contain so called "backdoors". This means that the person/s who cracks the script add codes of their own which for example, sends all member data and/or other sensitive data to that cracker, grant admin access etc.

    • So how can members know which program is running on unlicensed/ pirated scripts and which are legitimate? The only script I personally am familiar with is Cash Crusader and it is not difficult to find out for yourself whether the program you are in or intend to join is using Cash Crusader scripts and whether they are unlicensed/ pirated scripts or not.

    For example, click on the following link:

  • Spare Dollars Script Runner

    You will get a small report like this.
    This shows that the program is running on Cash Crusader script.
    CashCrusader Version:2.00
    Last MySQL backup from admin: 0.09 days


    Commissions settings:
    Point ads: 15 %
    Cash ads: 15 %
    Must login every 15 days and
    be at least % as active as your downline to get commission from downline clicks


    Sales Commission: %

    Only support registered sites. Click here to verify registration

    Now click on "click here to verify registration" and you will be taken to a page where you can check whether the program is registered or not. In the example above, if you click on the "click here to verify registration", you will find that Spare Dollars is registered. If a program is not registered, it will mention that the program is NOT registered. Then you will know that the program is running on pirated/ unlicensed scripts.

    The following links list out programs that are running on pirated/ unlicensed scripts:
    Cash Crusader List:

  • CashCrusader Unlicenced Sites
    GPF Pinned Thread:
  • GetPaidForums List of Unlicenced Sites

    Now you know what the problem is and how it affects our industry. The above should also give you some idea how to check whether the program you are in or intend to join is running on pirated/ unlicensed scripts if they are using Cash Crusader scripts. The next question is, are you willing to do your part to help this industry to get rid of this problem? The decision is up to you.

    Written by Enchanted in collaboration with Spare-Dollars and sinimarttonen