Written by Ro Bellingham
Hi, I’m Ro and I’m studying a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology).
I’m sure you know what apps are popular, but I want to warn you about apps that claim you can win a lot of money in a short time. When you actually try and get the money it never eventuates. At least it sure didn’t for me.
Now I’m very suspicious of these so-called apps because they often have spelling mistakes and poor grammar and they claim that PayPal supports them. But, no, it does not endorse those apps at all…The apps only say that to make you feel better about playing them. Really, they get your email address so they can send you lots and lots of junk emails rather than giving you that cash you really wanted to win in the first place. You can usually tell these games by the creator. There are several different companies that just churn them out so if they don’t get you with one game, they’ll try to get you with another.
Also, the feedback they give you is a sure sign that they will not pay you. Here are some screenshots from a game I played from Alpha Gain called “Triple Tile Crush” as well as the feedback that I and another player (name blanked out for privacy) made on Google Play.
Basically, the game was full of empty promises, playing 3 games to win money instantly was an empty promise because the game was set up so you couldn’t.
This is their feedback to my review. Basically, I wasn’t following the rules so I don’t get the money?? Yeah right. They said exactly the same thing to this person who also submitted a one-star review.
Again, they claim that the user (name blanked out for privacy) should read the terms and conditions and then claim they are dedicated to improving the app. They haven’t changed anything since I wrote the review and this shows their claims of winning are empty claims.
In-App Purchase traps
The other thing I would like to warn about is games that encourage “in-app purchases”. I fell victim to one of those games. It was called Fishdom and operated by Playrix. You build aquariums but you need to earn coins and you play levels to get the coins. But they deliberately made the games super hard so you’d never succeed without spending money to get more coins and more powerups. I actually ended up spending over $500 on that game and I realised that I had an addiction. These games are so cunning at making you want to play them. Here are some pretty pictures that are used to lure players into playing this game. There are others such as Gardenscapes and Homescapes that do exactly the same thing.
Fishdom definitely got me hook line and sinker (pun intended)
There are good apps out there
But not to fret. There are good apps out there where you don’t have to purchase anything if you don’t want to. There are some good colouring in games to relieve stress, (Happy Colour is my favourite and I use that when I feel a bit down) and also apps to learn languages.
Final Notes
The final note is that before you install these games, look at the reviews and if it doesn’t have reviews yet. STAY CLEAR OF IT! Also, if it says “Early Access” in brackets, it’s a prototype and it will disappear once Google or Samsung decides it’s a scam. You can report these games for being suspicious. The more people reporting these games means that the scammers aren’t getting their hands on your data.
Online gaming can be enjoyable but if you don’t look for the warning signs in games you may end up paying with your personal data rather than with money.
Charlie blog is a SSAF funded initiative
