Paid2Tap: Legit or Scam?

Here’s everything about Paid2Tap being not legit and a scam:

Paid2Tap is not a legitimate business.

As of the time of this writing, the online resources have been taken offline and are unreachable.

Using information from users from before it went offline, it appeared to be built on a model known as click fraud.

This practice is illegal in the United States.

So if you want to learn all about why Paid2Tab is a scam, then this article is for you.

Let’s jump right in!

Paid2Tap: Legit or a Scam? (Don't Do This!)

What Is Paid2Tap?

It’s an online platform that claims to pay users to carry out tasks on the internet.

Those tasks range from taking surveys to testing apps to clicking on sites or advertisements.

There’s a lot of different stuff potentially involved, but the gist is that you get paid to interact with things on the internet.

Paid2Tap is hardly the only such platform in existence, and these platforms have a mixed reputation at best.

So, it’s perfectly reasonable that you might have questions as to the legitimacy of the platform.

I’ll be breaking this one down pretty thoroughly so that you know everything that matters in regards to Paid2Tap.

How Does Paid2Tap Work? (2 Things)

That already sounds too good to be true, but strangely enough, the internet is filled with weird ways to make money.

How does Paid2Tap fit in?

Paid2Tap does not have publicly available business model information.

I can’t tell you exactly how it works because the platform isn’t divulging that information.

But, if it’s at all like any other pay to click platforms, there are a few things we can glean.

First, surveys are usually paid for by whoever is hosting the survey campaign.

There are countless possibilities, but it’s pretty normal to include a cash incentive for people to fill out a survey.

That part of the model is potentially legitimate and fairly normal.

The same can be said for app testing.

The bigger issue with Paid2Tap comes in with ad clicking.

#1 Pay Per Click Advertising

At the core of the Paid2Tap model (and the business model for any platform in this vein) is the concept of pay per click advertising.

This is a form of advertising where businesses pay for the ad every time someone clicks on it (or taps on it from a mobile device).

So, if you own a local coffee shop, you could do a pay per click ad campaign on Facebook.

Facebook will show your ad to a bunch of users (presumably users in your area).

When they click on the ad, you are charged according to the terms of your advertising agreement.

Before we go any further, I want to emphasize that this is just an example.

In my research of Paid2Tap, I saw no links between the platform and Facebook.

I’m just pointing out how pay per click advertising works in general.

#2 Pay Per Click Abuse

Even though Paid2Tap claims that you will be paid for a wide range of online activities, it appears as though the bulk of the model is tied to the idea of exploiting pay per click advertising.

Paid2Tap either sells such ads, or it works in partnership with a business that does.

Paid2Tap is then paying users to go and click on the ads.

This generates revenue for the advertiser, and some of that is passed down to you.

If this sets off any alarm bells in your head, you’re on the right track.

I told you from the start that Paid2Tap is not legitimate, and now that you understand the basic business model, I can lay out the deeper issues at play.

Is Pay Per Click Legal? (2 Points)

Let’s start with a broader question that doesn’t necessarily involve Paid2Tap.

Is this business model even legal?

It seems shady at best to go and drive up advertising costs without generating legitimate business leads for the business footing the bill.

Well, it turns out that there are some legitimate legal concerns here.

Depending on how things are defined, this practice very well can be construed as fraud.

When that is the case, US regulations allow for pretty steep fines and up to 10 years in jail for such practices.

So, does the Paid2Tap model follow this?

#1 Fraud Claims

The idea of exploiting pay per click advertising is fairly new, and the laws on the books are not perfectly clear about everything.

There have been legal cases dating back to at least 2016, and a landmark case was adjudicated in the US in 2020 (which I’ll go over in more detail in a bit).

This means that the courts are still in the process of figuring out what to do with pay per click abuse.

It’s commonly referred to as click fraud, and it’s easy to understand the perspective claiming that this is in fact fraud.

If we go back to the coffee shop example, you’re paying the advertiser to help you connect with legitimate potential customers.

If you’re being charged for clicks from people who don’t live in your city and can never visit the shop, then it certainly feels like you are being defrauded of the money you pay for the advertising.

So, what do the courts have to say about this?

#2 The Landmark Case

The case involved the trial of Fabio Gasperini in 2016.

I’m going to skip a lot of details from the case and get right to the point.

According to a federal judge, click fraud is a violation of the computer fraud and abuse act (CFAA).

Violation of this act can include up to 10 years in prison.

But even though the ruling is in place, it’s important to understand that this is a matter of legal precedent rather than clear law.

The idea has not been escalated all the way to the Supreme Court, so within the US, there is still potential for this ruling to be reversed in the future.

Since there is no specific legislation regarding click fraud, it’s hard to say that the practice is definitely illegal or will remain illegal.

Is Paid2Tap a Scam? (3 Reasons)

Let’s revisit the original question.

Is this a legit business?

I’m sticking with my original answer of no.

Now, I haven’t seen clear evidence that Paid2Tap is trying to steal money or data from its users.

I have no idea about anything down that road of thinking.

But, Paid2Tap is definitely not a legitimate, properly registered business.

And, there’s no chance that it’s going to pay you $8,000 a month for clicking on things on the internet.

In fact, I can’t find convincing evidence that Paid2Tap would ever pay you at all.

Let’s go over some of the things I found to justify all of this.

#1 Closed Domain

As of writing this review, Paid2Tap.com is offline.

That’s definitely not a good sign.

Now, it’s possible that the site has moved to a new domain.

It’s possible that the offline status is temporary (although it’s been offline for a few days since I started researching).

A lot of things are possible.

But, legitimate businesses tend to take downtime very seriously, especially when they are internet-based businesses.

That Paid2Tap has been offline and remains offline suggests that the business is shutting down.

Or, at the very least, it’s not being run well enough that you could trust in on-time payments.

#2 Reviews

On the other hand, I found tons and tons of positive reviews for Paid2Tap while I was looking.

That’s actually a good sign, right?

Unfortunately, none of the reviews I investigated panned out.

Not a single one of those reviews is showing clear proof of working with the site or how anything functions.

Instead, all of the positive reviews have generic positive comments that don’t actually inform the process.

Additionally, the claims are very unlikely to be true.

Some reviews are claiming to make $8,000 a month via Paid2Tap.

Based on the pay per click business model, there’s just no way.

You would actually have to click millions of ads over a month to bring in that kind of revenue. It’s not happening.

This might sound counterintuitive, but in this case, the abundance of generic, meaningless positive reviews is actually a red flag.

Had I seen a single positive review with verifiable information, it would be a different matter.

But, I went through several hundred reviews, and none of them offered legitimate insight.

#3 Paper Work

Here’s the biggest problem with Paid2Tap.

I couldn’t find any business registration or paperwork attached to the platform.

There are reviews claiming that it’s a Netherlands company. (I couldn’t verify Paid2Tap’s own claim as the site is down now.)

I searched Netherlands business registrations. Nothing came up that was clearly connected to Paid2Tap.

I couldn’t find SEC filings. I couldn’t find any legitimate paperwork at all.

The very well could be a real business associated with Paid2Tap at some level.

Surely the people running the platform are trying to make money off of it, but the point is that there is a complete lack of transparency.

Legitimate businesses don’t need to fear displaying their business registration information.

The overt effort put into distancing any legal business verifications with Paid2Tap means that it’s almost certainly a scam.

And, since the business model is based on something that is effectively illegal in the US right now, it’s not surprising that all of this information is rapidly disappearing from internet searches.

Author

Theresa McDonough

Tech entrepreneur and founder of Tech Medic, who has become a prominent advocate for the Right to Repair movement. She has testified before the US Federal Trade Commission and been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, helping influence change within the tech industry.
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