If you've encountered any mobile ads over the past few months, you'll have seen services like Freecash — apps that promise real money (or gift cards) for playing games on your phone. Claims like that are immediately a red flag, and the fact that they explicitly say that "it's not a scam" only draws more suspicious.
Well, it turns out I was right to be skeptical. Not only has Freecash garnered a reputation for deceptive marketing, but Apple has also just pulled it from the App Store for harvesting user data. So remember, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
The app was pulled on Monday, shortly after TechCrunch contacted Apple for comment, with Apple citing sections 3.1.2(a) and 2.3.1 of its App Store Review Guidelines. It didn't elaborate, but these specific guidelines forbid apps from scamming users, employing bait-and-switch tactics and utilizing misleading marketing. Freecash is still live and available to download on Google Play at the time of writing.
What we know about Freecash
Freecash has been subject to numerous reports over the past couple of months, highlighting the sketchy practices it employs.
A January report from Wired reveals that some of the Freecash ads, which promise money for watching TikTok videos, are totally bogus. Instead, it reveals that the app is built around users playing mobile games.
This deceptive marketing led to TikTok pulling offending ads from its platform. Freecash claimed that the misleading ads were created by third-party affiliates, and not the company itself. It also claimed that it was fully compliant with policies on the App Store and Google Play.
Well, seemingly not, because this isn't the first time it has been banned from Apple's App Store. TechCrunch notes that the app was first submitted in March 2024, but was pulled less than two months later. A few months later, a different App Store app, 256 Rewards Ltd, was rebranded as "Freecash" with the same functionality.
TechCrunch speculates that this was a way to circumvent Apple's initial ban and avoid Apple's app review system — though there's no evidence it definitely happened. This practice is against Apple's rules, and as reported in the Washington Post back in 2021, it's a common tactic used by malicious and scammy apps.
Wired found that users could earn monetary rewards by playing these games and completing challenges, but Freecash immediately started nudging them to spend real money to hit their targets faster. So there's another catch, and one that seemingly defeats the purpose of being paid to play mobile games.
Freecash's parent company, Berlin-based Almedia, has described the platform as a way to match game developers with users who are likely to install and spend, per a separate Malware Bytes report from January, and I'm guessing the promise of monetary rewards is a way to entice users who normally wouldn't be tempted by ordinary mobile games.
That same Malware Bytes report details how Freecash is used to harvest sensitive user data, including race, religion, sex life, health, orientation and even biometrics. That data can then be sold, and used for all sorts of purposes — including tailoring personalized adverts that try to entice you to spend even more money.
Bottom line
Freecash is far from the only app out there promising to pay users for doing simple tasks like playing games or scrolling TikTok in their downtime. I've never looked into it deeply, but I always knew that there had to be a catch involved — I just couldn't make up my mind what it was.
Data harvesting is the obvious one, and that's a tactic employed by countless companies all over the world — notably social media companies like Facebook. I've also seen ads for at least one app promising passive income paid in Bitcoin, and it felt pretty clear that the trade-off was that the app would end up using your phone's computing hardware to mine crypto.
While Almedia has denied allegations of driving artificial traffic or employing deceptive marketing, the evidence suggests Freecash is attempting to have its cake and eat it too.
The platform harvests user data through active use and encourages members to 'spend money to earn money' — a classic red flag. Furthermore, the ecosystem is supported by a network of misleading advertisements specifically designed to funnel users toward the service through questionable claims.
Needless to say, this should be a warning that you need to be careful about what apps you download. Even apps that aren't promising grand rewards could potentially be involved in some nefarious stuff behind the scenes — and the last thing you want is even more of your data landing in the hands of data brokers.
Meanwhile, if you do see an app in the App Store that may be a scam, report it to Apple on the reportaproblem.apple.com website. For any sketchy Google Play apps, you can use Google's tool to report the app or the developer.
