Does Instant Rewards Network Scam People? Unbiased Review

Posted by in Scams | 25 comments

instant_rewards_network_reviewWill Instant Rewards Network scam you out of your time & money? Welcome to my unbiased review. Yes, I am going to try to keep this review as unbiased and personal as I can. And no, I will NOT try to get you to sign up with them through my link. I know there are a lot of people out there who are desperately looking for ways to make money so they come across a program or “system” like this one and wonder if they can actually make all the money easily like the sales videos and representatives say. I actually got a request from one of my website visitors to do this a review and give my honest opinion as a full-time Internet marketer.

What Is Instant Rewards Network? Not A Job or “Position”

I know many people can be confused as to what this is or how it works. Perhaps you’re thinking it’s a work from home job or maybe some kind of “position” as often promoted in the capture page. In fact, there is a pretty clever registration process in order to get started. However, it is neither.

Basically this a sales funnel combined with a follow-up system that promotes CPA (Instant Rewards) offers for people to complete more than anything else. If you can get people to complete these offers, you will get paid. The system keeps following up with the people you recruit, pitching them to complete the same process you did. That is really how you make the money: by siphoning as many income-seekers as you can, through your own IRN link. That’s why you might see someone really hype up this program and recommend to click their link if you want to “make $300 daily!!!”.

Completing the “Steps” To Get “Qualified”

If you ever want to earn credits to get paid, you have to signup to the steps. This means completing trial offers yourself, until you have met the required credits which is usually 1. But don’t get too excited. Many of these offers are NOT free and the free ones have a trial expiration which if you don’t cancel in time, you get billed.

  1. You complete trial offer at Instant Rewards 20
  2. Complete trial offer at Instant Rewards 60
  3. Same thing with Instant Rewards 100

The Instant Rewards Network funnel combines all this for you. However, you must earn 1 credit at each site to get paid by each site. Sometimes each trial offer only adds up to a fraction of 1 credit such as .20 credits, so this means you might have to sign up to multiple trial offers. Some actually cost money. Some are free, but will keep billing you if you forget to cancel. It can be a big headache signing up to all this stuff. But, you need to if you want to become ACTIVATED. 

Not A Big Fan Of The Training/Advice

Please understand, that making money with Instant Rewards Network is not going to be “as simple as copy/pasting ads!”. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it. You are basically going to need to MARKET your own referral link and get as many people to opt in through you.

After signing up, I got follow up emails from my sponsor that said you should share your link on Facebook and promote it on other social networking sites and that’s how you’re going to start making money immediately. Without a clear strategy how to do this, it’s going to be a waste of time and your friends/family are going to get mad at you for spamming the news feed.

Another tip was to target classified ad websites and “copy and paste” pre written ads in the jobs section. Wow. Really? That’s going to get you in trouble. Plus, it’s a little deceiving since this is not a job and you’re placing it in the “jobs” section. 

I’ve also seen the promotion of a software that scrapes the ID’s/emails off of Facebook and pretty much spam those emails with your link. Again, this is not recommended.

Can You Really Make Money?

Yes, you can definitely make money if you can get people to click on your link and follow through all the steps. But that’s no different than any other marketing system or affiliate program out there! The difference is, this one revolves around completing CPA offers. You get paid $100

Is Instant Rewards Network A Scam?

It really depends who you are. If you are in IRN, you might be one of those DIE-HARD loyal followers who will ruthlessly defend this system to the death…and likely leave angry comments below. Lol. If you are the average Joe, you will probably think this is a scam, aimed at suckering new people to basically sponsor them into a step-by-step funnel where you make money off people giving out their credit card info. 

My Honest Thoughts & Conclusion

I’m a little bit torn. On one hand, you can definitely make money with this program. On the other hand, I do think it’s a little bit misleading as far as “making $300-$500 per day!!!” and I really don’t like the cheesy promotional sales aspect of it a lot of affiliates are using, nor do I like the spammy marketing strategies. I think they’re borderline unethical and just sleezy. As long as you’re being truthful about it and not trying to excite people by saying stuff like “make $500 just posting ads!” and “it’s super easy!” and stuff like that, you should be fine. 

Do I personally think it’s a scam? I think it’s borderline. 

I  think Instant Rewards Network is pretty darn close to scam. I wouldn’t join it. It’s not my thing. You’re going to be taught the same exact marketing methods as everyone else in the same niche as everyone else, marketing the same “system” as everyone else. You are basically going to need to continuously hustle people on the Internet. This means promoting your links everywhere and anywhere you can, waiting for leads to come in where you might be taught to call every person you can, encouraging them to join. I’ve seen this happen before. It’s not pretty.

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25 Comments

  1. nothing in live worth having is easy..it all takes work try MLM you will run back to instant rewards…

    • Try affiliate marketing. It’s work, but much easier.

  2. WOW.. referral trading has DEFINITELY changed since i was in it back in ’07 ’08.. that is ALL this is.. different tactic.. i cant say it doesnt and WONT work.. but it IS misleading. when i did referral trading i was in forums such as FiPG and after alittle while RELUCTANTLY FLR (Free iPOD Guide) and(Free Lunch Room) respectively.. completing offers was how it was done and i see is STILL done.. honestly i didnt even KNOW a lot of these sites still EXISTED until recently.. TRAINN sites.. and i have even seen ZipNadaZilch is still around.. back THEN there were reputable sites as well as NON reputable sites.. for those who DON’T know and honestly i havent read the whole feed on this here.. here’s how it works.. your referrer has completed his obligation of 1 or however many credits it took to
    go green” on the site.. afterwards he chooses which “prize” he wants. most times it is a paypal reward of however many dollars.. for example.. lets say it’s ONE ref for 60 dollars. they would choose that as their reward and then go post in the forums that they are looking for referrals and paying 30 dollars for it.. that is the incentive for the person who is signing up under the referrers link to “go green” on their site. IF the referrer PAYS on green the ref gets 30 bux and the referrer gets his 60 PENDING APPROVAL. many things CAN and HAVE gone wrong in this process.. some offers NEVER credit.. some are SLOW to credit and sometimes you have refs that just flat out SCAM the offer.. you can never complete the same offer twice. there is a process of GETTING credit for the offer such as clearing cookies before you do the offer.. sorry for the long post but i just wanted people to know that money CAN be made but its NOT as easy as they are making it SOUND

  3. I have been with this company for a year and a half now. I have made thousands and thousands of dollars with this company. Just like anything else, it takes work. You can’t expect money to fall in your lap. Just because you don’t agree with it, doesn’t make something a scam. Just because it didn’t work for someone, doesn’t mean that it is a scam. I don’t agree with the ones that post their link everywhere. Nor do I agree with the ones who say you WILL make so much money a day. There is no guarantee anyone will make any money. I personally don’t think PAYPAL or any of these companies would be associated with a “scam”

    • Hello i was wondering if you could give me some pointers on how to get people to sign up..

  4. Many of these companies are very unloyal, do not get into this garbadge called instant rewards or big ka bang they enter you into these trial offers that turn into nightmares i learned my lesson! dont do it youll end up paying more for what u make! also they are constantly placing accounts on hold to cut for losses this company is not loyal if u are gunna do sales i suggest MCA even though i never did mca but i know all about it. i still wont do mca because i dont like sales.

  5. I wished I would have read this before I got involved with this. You are accurate it is very misleading. They tell you its very easy but you have to constantly prowl on websites to talk people into these trials to get started. Yes, I would say borderline scam is the perfect words for this. I signed up for the ”free” credit score and on the 7th day I was charged 29.99 I was so angry. On top of that my account was frozen also. They don’t tell you a lot of things they just try to pump you up so they can get paid.

  6. YEah just like i thought not a scam yet but soon as too many are in it the money earned is putrid. This will die away also. Been in online stuff for years also only things that really make me money are things like Adsense selling things on craigslist which i find in peoples trash or get from neighbors i made at least $15,000 past year selling everything from a to z. Aklso like you said making a website correctly then getting it out there to drive traffic to it are ultra important. NOT even a brick n mortar business can survive without traffic. I also have my own product i sell for $175 and got 4 sold this year strictly teaching others how to win at NFL sports betting. Thats all there is too all these online programs if you need to recruit or pay for any thing like sigining up for offers save your time and money there hasnt been any to survive long haul to make riches for 10,000 people.

  7. Thank you for your honest review. I do need help.

  8. Good Morning, my name is Burtron and I just wanted to comment on the review on Instant Rewards. Even though the review was accurate to a degree, it didn’t paint the realistic picture of this business. I have been in this business for over 4 years, and I have made a substantial amount of money doing it. With any “marketing biz opp”, the key is to get your link out to as many people as you possibly can. That maybe by Facebook marketing, placing ads in classifieds, blogging, using Craigslist or creating a website. You can even use offline marketing such as using flyers and drop cards, street signs etc. The key to remember that it’s YOUR business and to market it as such. So many times I see people who are accustomed to working for someone, they don’t have the right mindset. They are used to people telling them what to do, instead of finding out for themselves. They need someone to hold their hand and tell them to do this or to do that. There is alot of information available for the novice marketer to learn how to market, you just have be able to and willing to put the time in. Any affiliate marketing program or network marketing program, you’re going to have to do the same….Prepaid Legal, Primerica, Motor Club of America, Mary Kay or even Avon. The model is the same, get in front of as many people as you possibly can.
    Instant Rewards gives you ALOT of useful tools and tips for you to be successful. They give a FREE marketing website with autoresponder and capture page, they have a FREE training site that offer step by step on how to get started. They also have Facebook support groups with over 3000 active members there to help you in real time.

    I agree that sometimes a marketer can promote what some seem to be unrealistic income amounts..$300-$500 per day. I have made $200-$400 alot of days, not all though. Some days I have made as little as just $20, that’s just how it goes when you’re working for yourself. Some days you might not turn a profit, but some days you’re going to make as much as some people make in a week. Just be consistent in your marketing efforts and work hard, just as you would for someone else.

    Also you can you use this as a feeder program for other network marketing programs. For example, I market Motor Club of America (AAA service that pays a referral fee of $80-$90 per referral). What I do is market the Motor Club member ship which cost $40 to start ($20 first 2 months). I tell them they can have the membership for FREE, they just have to complete a few trial offers from participating sponsors. I sign them up to Instant Rewards 60 site, they complete 3-4 offers, they may spend $5-$8. I make $70 from Instant Rewards, I then take $40 from that and pay for my referrals MCA membership…in which I make $80-$90 profit from. So I have essentially made $110-$120 profit ($30 profit from Instant and $80 profit from MCA). My referral now has a business model he or she can duplicate, a MCA membership paid up for 2 months and the ability to earn over $100 per referral.

    Before someone come and say anything about this business model, it is being done everyday by a company called Trialpay. They offer “Free Products or Services” ranging from software like Winzip or AVG Antivirus to Xbox Live subscriptions to movie tickets from Fandango. All the end user have to do is complete a few trial offers and they get rewarded. The same thing Instant Rewards is doing, except they are paying REAL CASH instead of some software or movie tickets. Try stuff for yourself before you make an assumption about anything.

    Thanks For Reading Guys…

    • I was contacted to join Instant Rewards. I’m a strong believer that in order to succeed in those programs you have to have an experienced “higher up”. How can I join your team?

  9. Thanks for the fair review if this company.

  10. I cannot recommend Instant Rewards Network. Reason is because I was about ready to promote the program until they placed a hold on my account. They say they placed a hold on my account to ask for my ID in order to approve my account. I’m not willing to provide this information since we have no way of knowing if the company asking for my ID is legit or whether or not to protect companies from frauds or scams like they are claiming. This can lead to identity theft. I don’t recommend Instant Rewards Network misleading people that this is a job which is not a job. This is more of a CPA program. I do not recommend instant rewards network to anyone.

    • George,
      The reason they needed the ID is because Accounts are being put on hold left and right. No it does not mean you are in trouble, it will not effect your bank account (IR has no connection with your bank), and you cannot do anything, esp get paid until you resolve this issue.

      The reason behind this is that IR is rapidly growing and this also means that there are some dirty sponsors out there trying to cheat the system by using prepaid cards or paying with their card for their referrals which is clearly a violation of the rules. IR needs a photo of your ID, mail with your name and address, and a photo of the card you used to complete your offers with a pen or pencil covering up the numbers (for your own security). Do NOT block out the numbers using photoshop or any other editing app/software. Use a pen, pencil, or strip of paper. Your name needs to still be visible in the photo.

      • Dear Jessica,
        Real money-making reviewers contribute their valuable time and expertise and often their own time to further the Investigate scam sites and Instant Rewards Network is one of them. They do this both for their own reasons – INTRINSIC VALUES; and for the benefit of the project or for and the enjoyment of others and the people who investigate scam to and prevent others from joining – EXTRINSIC VALUES.
        I see you trolling away from under your insignificant little bridge with your feeble little arguments about why these people – people who already give away much of their valuable time and expertise calling with sites are scams, are either purposefully trying to undermine you and your enjoyment by withholding new arguments you are trying to make – or should do more for you as you have the loudest voice. You are being the hungry, ungrateful troll child under the bridge.
        Others who already do so much for the to review money making sites to see if they are scam or legit may have their own reasons, or reasons that you do not understand not to do something at this immediate point in time.
        To quantify, something that you Jessica the troll are demanding right now is you are forcing to convince others that Instant Rewards Network is as legit and thinking you are the smartest person in the world. I seem to remember something about Instant Rewards Network being a scam where members lost money from the admin who refuses to pay from a previous discussion accusing those sending referrals to cheat system a sorry excuse asking for an ID, which is not a valid reason. They better need to provide a better reason than that other than stating why asking for IDs when accounts are placed on hold.
        Anyway, if I put $6000 of my own money towards buying to contribute to the purchase price to buy new technology to conduct cyber- investigation to investigate scams like instant rewards network.
        I see you have squirmed out of your way to convince others to believe in what you thing. Your excuse being your seemingly poor current and future opinions prospects which are probably related to your poor attitude towards others respecting others view on money-making sites such as incentive freebie sites thinking you are always right and we’re always wrong.
        Before you aim your pointy stick in my direction I feel that I have a right to speak on this topic as I countless hours investigating money making websites since the late 90s much longer than you have and found a lot complaints with the scam sites such as this one.. (I don’t keep a tally and don’t wish to.) Example – I discovered that Zeek Rewards and Instant Rewards Network stole people’s personal information such as their credit card information to commit fraud and sold unregistered bonds to help themselves make money. I have interviewed a lot of people who used Instant Rewards Network and zeek rewards and they all said they lost money and the owners were fraudulent and complaints were valid.
        I myself have some rare time to investigate money making sites as it is large and I don’t always have the right tools to do some cyber investigation on these sites.
        I am not abusing anyone’s opinions. I intend to put in place of respecting others views – but the lack of time to have it done professionally or access to expensive technology such as a high resolution camera prohibits me from doing so ATM to crack down on scam sites like instant rewards network.
        I have just seen another scam site like Instant Rewards Network took people’s money and stole their identity. Better save my time and bucks, not living on a lot at the moment being a full time uni student and all that.
        Then I suppose there is no real rush – I’ll declare them as scams when I see the truth.
        Cheers,
        Tingoes.

        • It is you who is the troll. It takes some common sense to think about these things. Did you know that someone is required to show proof of identity when being hired for a job? Why? For tax purposes. Usually, at a regular job, you will receive a W-2 at the end of the year. With IR, you will be receiving a 1099. Do you know what that is? If not, then you wouldn’t know how to handle anything other than a W-2, so back under your rock and leave the smarter thinking to those who can handle it.

          • No, you are the one that’s trolling. Just because someone has to submit tax forms does not signify as legit. It only means they have to report their earnings to the IRS. There are people who made money by scamming others and still had to report those earnings for tax purposes. Have some common sense to know the difference.

    • Apparently you don’t know what your talking about. Anyone that watched the introduction video would see that they clearly say that this is NOT a job. That you are contracted and you must pay your own taxes and would receive a 1099 if you make over $600. Because there are a lot of scams out there doest mean this one is. Do your homework first before you mislead people.

      • Dave,

        It is very clear that you have no taste in what a job is. You are just defending this scam. Just because someone makes money from this program does not mean everyone one will. A job and making money at home is not the same. This and Zeek Rewards are sad scams that stymied people’s ability wanting to earn money from home. Just because someone receives a 1099 does not mean this business is legit. It can still be a scam. Do your research before you mislead and stymied others.

        • Lol…And we should listen to a “wanna be” DJ that’s never made any real money on or offline? You talk about this industry as if you’re a guru and yet the only reason why you know anything about the industry is because you Google’d it due to the fact you weren’t making any money offline. So, you ran across Instant Rewards (probably made no money with it cause you’re a lazy weirdo who just sits around and play video games but I digress lol) saw some info and decided not to get in and make money with it.

          I mean you don’t know what YOU wanna do. Graffiti the rubbished streets of Sydney, become an “online journalist (posting about 12 posts and gave that up lol give me a break!), or a DJ that no one wants to book. So, you take your frustration out on those who are trying to earn more money for themselves. Cause that is the purpose, right?

          If you don’t like it or Zeek Rewards, then why don’t you create your own company that better? *I hear crickets*

          No one talks about how you got a job, did all the labor and passed 99.9% of the money up to the CEO of the company while you got paid a fraction of what left 1-2 weeks later being a SCAM.

          You’re smart. I can tell by your dialect. So, why don’t you use your intelligence to create something better for these people instead of being an Internet gangster?

          One more thing before you respond….don’t hate on The Man 🙂

          • Man, I think you too should sit down and smoke the peace pipe.
            I can understand the frustration investigating scams that people like you refuse to believe, but chances are that it will show up again.
            Me and Guru is right, if the site is not a scam or the quality of the site is unknown to be legit then the site needs to be investigated.
            I investigated a few sites and sent had Guru to search those sites to see if they are scams, as well as some owners committing fraud.
            All has been done.
            I was very happy that Zeek Rewards was shut that I myself to investigate and shut them down to save people being scammed. When the technology was available – a scanning electron helped scanned the site on the names of owners who are known to scam people.
            This took some time – I think it might have been more than five years from when I sent it till the chip was finally read to investigate websites that are scams.
            I was happy when I suggested myself and Guru that site is scamming people and needs to be shut down. It’s understandable that sites that are legit are getting harder to prove.
            The Man, you have done a poor job of slamming people’s right to facts and opinions and undermining their freedom why sites like this should be reported. I don’t think we abuse anyone to report what the site is doing wrong and doing illegally. The amount sites that are scamming people and stealing people’s money are very overwhelming. I could scan the site with electrons with see who is the scammer having the history of committing fraud. This sounds like we would be going back to the bad old days. There plenty of scam sites and elitist investigator has the best equipment and skills to bring these scam sites down and file criminal charges against the scam owners of committing fraud.
            Another member suggested some time ago that a scammer stole their identity and their money just like what Instant rewards and Zeek Rewards did. The last thing we need is more infighting on these issues from the elite group of investigation team who have e a PhD in Physics.
            The thing is the value of the legit sites would have to be worth more than the cost of bringing them down that are scamming people. They would also have to be completely shut down to prevent from stealing their identities and committing fraud to help people become safe from scammers like you. There I have said my piece, can we just get on with the job of finding, buying, good old equipment to scan scam sites from cheating people for their money.
            The Man, you are bad and poor person. Stop trolling as you cannot get your facts straight.
            Cheers,
            Tingoes.
            (I’ll start investigating more scam sites when I finish this damn University degree.)
            Meanwhile there are a couple of scam sites I like to bring down.

  11. This is a very dishonest company. I do not recommend instant rewards.I was about ready to promote instant rewards until they placed my account on hold saying that they need my ID and proof of current address to approve my account. I am not willing to provide this information due to the fact that there is a risk of identity theft. I will not provide this kind of information unless it was a job but it is not. Stay away from Instant Rewards.

  12. Very refreshing to see an honest, well written review such as yours. My husband and I are just now beginning our search for a legitimate, legal way to generate income on line. We are both disabled, and our goal is to supplement the income we currently have, and be able to use whatever plan we decide on, outside the U.S., as we currently spend most of the year in Belize. We welcome any suggestions you might care to share with us. Our internet and phone service are excellent here, and we use Skype and Facebook video chat quite frequently as well. Thanks again.

    • If you come across anything will you pls let me know… Thanks

  13. This was a very honest and thorough review. Thank you for sharing, and thanks for the heads up. I really don’t like when marketers mislead people about programs. It’s a big waste of time, and it can be frustrating and annoying when finding out the truth about such programs.

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