CashCrate is a fairly run-of-the-mill GPT operation launched in 2006. Since then, it has undergone a few tweaks, resulting in what you can now find at CashCrate.com.
What is a GPT site? “Get Paid To…” websites reward their users/victims with money for performing menial online tasks such as:
- Reading emails.
- Completing surveys.
- Shopping.
- Taking up part-time, side-hustles.
- Doing other tasks that may come up and that they can perform online.
You do not have to be a scam-busting expert to realize that the operation is rather tight-lipped about its background. The website promotes its deals but does not say much about who the people are behind the business, where it is located, etc.
In this piece, we shall attempt to bust open the CashCrate case, one detail at a time. We are looking into every aspect of the operation.
- How does CashCrate (purport to) work?
- Who is behind the operation?
- What do its users say about it?
- What is CashCrate’s official reputation?
- Is CashCrate a scam, or is it something even more “sinister”?
- What is CashCrates.co and does it have any links to CashCrate?
How Does CashCrate Work?
As mentioned, CashCrate is a GPT site, targeting people who have not yet realized that there are no shortcuts to making money and getting what they want in life. Such people may still believe that they can generate money worth their while filling out online surveys and performing other useless online “deeds.”
Before we delve any deeper into this review, we have to point out that CashCrate ceased directly offering deals and surveys in April 2019. Since then, the site has been converted into a directory. It now peddles the deals offered by other GPT operators, in setups similar to what CashCrate used to offer.
On the other hand, on the Trustpilot page of the operation, some users claim to have earned money from it in June 2020. Some of these reviews seem fishy, to say the least, but it is impossible to tell whether they are entirely fake.
Further complicating the picture is another operation, CashCrates.co, which does not seem linked to CashCrate.com. Some users in the mentioned reviews refer to Cash Crates. CashCrates.co is a company based in London, UK, offering users social media-related tasks to complete.
Let us get back to CashCrate.com for now. According to some affiliate reviewers, the platform used to hand out some 70 percent of its revenues to its users. That said, countless users have complained about never having received any money. Allegedly, most of the deals the site offered targeted US and European customers. Someone from Africa or Australia did not, therefore, gain access to the best-paying deals.
Positive affiliate reviews of the operation teem with contradictions. One such reviewer states, for instance, that CashCrate only requires an email address and a password for registration. In the very next paragraph, it says that the site also needs the user’s home address, name, birthday, and even ethnicity. Furthermore, for the best paying deals, CashCrate also requires credit card information.
In addition to all that, the site also featured a welcome survey. In it, it milked users for further information with the alleged goal of establishing what types of surveys they would best enjoy completing.
For cashing out, the site featured a limit of $20. It did not run a reward point system to obfuscate the real value it delivered.
Among its “pluses,” reviewers had identified an “excellent referral system” that lent the operation a Ponzi dimension.
CashCrate used to be one of the more “generous” GPT operations. For a 5-minute survey, it would pay around 25 cents. A 30-minute survey would bring in around $2.
The surveys CashRate members had to complete covered:
- Customer satisfaction.
- HR and employees.
- Products and markets.
- Promoters.
- Events.
CashCrate’s Background
The corporate entity behind the CashCrate.com website is a certain CashCrate LLC. The exact address of the company is 1880 E Warm Springs Rd STE 100, Las Vegas, NV 89119-4679.
CashCrate LLC was indeed founded in 2006, but its date of incorporation in Nevada is 7/22/2008. The alternate name of the business is Cash Crate. It does not seem to have any links to the mentioned CashCrates.co, based in London, UK.
The CEO of the company is Patrick Clochesy and its customer contact is Joseph Coleman.
The Better Business Bureau has given the company a rating of D- on account of several customer complaints it has failed to address.
What do Users Say about CashCrate?
This is where the image of the GPT operation goes south. On various consumer feedback portals, members are split about 50-50 on whether the operation is legitimate or not. Interestingly, many of the posters complaining about various shortcomings have rewarded the company with 5-star ratings.
The complaints are numerous and varied.
- Some people say that the site freezes accounts as soon as they reach the cash out threshold.
- Others have noticed that the payment proof images the site has provided are doctored.
- Still others have threatened the company with legal action.
- Some members said the site did not allow referrals through their personalized links.
From these complaints, the image of a phishing scheme emerges. The BBB page of the company deals this shaky image a further blow.
Some of the complaints there are downright chilling. According to them, CashCrate placed users’ email addresses on the dark web, where hackers got hold of them and used them to access computers and wreak havoc.
Several complainers have leveled similar accusations upon the operation. All BBB complainers threatened the company with legal action. Some have reported Cash Crate to the FTC and FBI.
One cannot help but wonder whether the April 2019 step-back the company has taken might be the result of these complaints.
Anecdotal Proof of Foul Play
Several users have noticed that as soon as they provided their email address to CashCrate upon registration, a torrent of spam descended upon the said addresses. One person created a brand new email address just to use it to register. Within minutes of registration, spam flooded the fresh email account.
Operations such as CashCrate are more often than not fronts for phishing schemes. The site may not have required members’ personal details upon registration. It did, however, skillfully squeeze its users to gradually give up more and more information, so they could get “paid”. Eventually, some of the better deals required credit card information as well.
The scheme is a time-honored one. The villain sets up a front and gambles on its would-be victims’ financial greed to obtain their personal information. When financial benefits are likely, many people will give up their information voluntarily, without a second thought.
CashCrate’s Official Reputation
In a Northern District of California lawsuit regarding the Yahoo Inc. customer data security breach, CashCrate LLC appears as one of the victims of hackers. In December 2018, a Northern Illinois court handled a class action lawsuit against CashCrate LLC.
Considering everything, CashCrate’s official reputation is bad. Legal action and customer complaints may have well led to the altering of the company’s business model.
Nowadays, it seems focused on funneling the gullible hopeful to other GPT operations in exchange for an affiliate commission.
Is CashCrate a Scam, or is it something Even More “Sinister”?
CashCrate may have been nothing more than a rank-and-file phishing operation until the point where users began linking it to the dark web. What is truly scary about the setup is that you did not even have to personally register to fall victim to hackers.
One of the BBB complainers stated that someone got hold of his/her email address, and used it to register an account at CashCrate. After that, all hell broke loose, and the complainer ended up with his/her identity stolen.
Whether we can call CashCrate a scam or not is up for debate. What is certain, however, is that the operation is not safe. Do not share any information with it. Do not register with any of its currently promoted deals. Steer well clear of it. If you need money, there are more conventional and safer ways to earn it.
What is CashCrates.co and does it have Any Links to CashCrate?
CashCrate.com’s success inspired countless clones. One might assume that CashCrates.co has attempted to cash in on the notoriety of the brand. The similarities between the two operations are numerous. CashCrates.co has taken the ball and developed the model into a more modern form. It markets itself to social media influencers and anyone fancying him/herself as such. If you have a social media account, you are in. It is that simple.
CashCrates.co requires its users to download an app, which will then track their online activities, to pay them for it. CashCrates.co’s business model is perhaps even more convoluted than that of CashCrate, but several common elements shine through it.
- It has the GPT element. The app assigns users various tasks for which it rewards them with money.
- It has a referral-based Ponzi dimension as well.
Unlike CashCrate, CashCrates.co seems to attempt to cash in on manipulating social media as well. It also works the time-honored phishing angle, so it is a multi-faceted operation.
How Does CashCrates.co Work?
The operation requires its members to download and install an app on their computers. This app then allegedly tracks their online activities.
It also requires them to complete a series of tasks that are quite innocuous at first glance and make absolutely zero sense at second.
CashCrates.co’s tasks include:
- Subscribing to a YouTube channel and posting a video promoting CashCrates.
- Following a Facebook page and making promotional Facebook posts.
- Following an Instagram account and posting there.
- Following a TikTok account and posting videos there.
- Bringing other people into the CashCrates.co fold.
The app gives users a $50 bonus just for joining. Will they ever cash out anything though?
The Ponzi dimension of the operation requires members to share a custom link that the app assigns to them. For every person who clicks that link, they are rewarded with $2. For every person who registers through that link, CashCrates issues a $10 reward.
CashCrates’ rewards are more generous than what most other similar operations offer. For the TikTok task alone, it offers a $25 reward.
Red Flags
The website of the operation is a haphazardly thrown-together mess. It does not detail the business model. You need to get the app and install it to see what it requires you to do.
It claims to have the backing of major social media personalities. It provides scant proof in this regard, however.
The operation aims to pull you in gradually making you jump through more and more hoops as you rack up more and more virtual funds and you grow more and more eager to cash out.
It is impossible for now to find someone who has cashed out and has credible proof in this regard.
At a closer look, the tasks do not make sense. The YouTube one requires you to subscribe to a channel that has zero content, but tens of thousands of subscribers. This may not be more than a way to build up the subscriber bases of various “clients” in exchange for payment. YouTube has a way of cracking down on such activities periodically, so the value this action provides is very dubious for all parties involved.
The posting of promotional videos and Facebook/Instagram entries fuels the scheme, drawing in others.
Some users have already alleged that CashCrates.co makes money from the personal information its users willingly hand it. That would make sense indeed.
The Devil is in the Details, or Terms of Service
CashCrates’ terms of service state that the company can suspend your account and deny you all payment “in its sole and absolute discretion.” The operation also takes care to deflect any liability tied to any aspect of the scheme that it runs.
According to its privacy policy, CashCrates also collects all personal information it can and it shares it with any entities with which it establishes business relations.
Based on this privacy policy, a company named Prodege LLC may be behind the CashCrates.co site. Prodege is based in El Segundo, California.
Conclusion
Shady online money making methods are after your personal information, almost without exception. Some may pay you some money while others will not, but they will all grab your information and sell it/share it with other unsavory entities.
The best course of action, when faced with offers such as those discussed in this article, is to steer well clear of them.
Remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it is a scam/phishing scheme of some sort. No business model gives away free money. Ask yourself how the entity offering you the “service” makes its money. Look into its business model. You will always find some common scammy elements that do not add up.