Readbud members : Do you want to know what and who you are rating ? (part 2)
By topffer
@topffer (42156)
France
April 18, 2010 11:49pm CST
For obvious reasons, I will not give here direct links to articles at Readbud.
Google this to find them and verify by yourself what I say :
Readbud "Australian Business Directory" site:www.readbud.com
The first Readbud article for this search is untitled :
Nokia E72 Black - Your Business And Outdoor Partner
It is not signed. You will find its source and author (Sarah Conner) at articlesnatch.com :
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Nokia-E72-Black---Your-Business-And-Outdoor-Partner---/1091982
The second article is untitled Building An Electric Car. You will find it again at ArticleSnatch with the name of the writer (Tauqeer Hassan) :
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Building-An-Electric-Car/965864
and at ezinearticles :
http://ezinearticles.com/?Building-an-Electric-Car&id=3747358
The author TOS at articlesnatch.com (it's quite the same at ezinearticles) says :
"5. You agree that ArticleSnatch.com is a free service for authors and publishers. You will not be paid for submitting your articles to our sites and you will not be paid if and when your articles are published. You will receive all credit for your work and your resource box will be left in place."
and the publisher TOS says :
"1. You must not remove "Article Source: http://www.ArticleSnatch.com" from each article you choose to publish.
2. You must respect the copyright of each author whose articles you wish to publish. This includes but is not limited to 1. resource box, 2. any links provided by the author."
Readbud violates the writers' copyright, and the TOS of these sites. These articles are publicly available, so nobody pays Readbud 10 cents here to give 5 cents to the members. Who will pay Readbud 's members ? Not the Google ads.
Now you know what you are rating. Your thoughts ?
9 people like this
14 responses
@workingmom50 (3091)
• United States
19 Apr 10
Great research!! And even if you are not a member(I am not either for many reasons...and you just added to them)...you took the time to share this knowledge with other members. We need more informed members such as yourself
.
Everyone keeps asking...are they legit....yet when someone shows something that maybe they as a member should think about....they get shot down...sad really.
Once again great job
.
Everyone keeps asking...are they legit....yet when someone shows something that maybe they as a member should think about....they get shot down...sad really.
Once again great job2 people like this
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
19 Apr 10
My thoughts entirely
Sad that when this was posted the notifiers were not working corrctly and not many have seen it. As you say, there are some great facts here which others should be made aware of.
I am not a member either and I am wondering when others will realise what they are doing by continuing there 
Sad that when this was posted the notifiers were not working corrctly and not many have seen it. As you say, there are some great facts here which others should be made aware of.
I am not a member either and I am wondering when others will realise what they are doing by continuing there 2 people like this
@workingmom50 (3091)
• United States
19 Apr 10
For me initially ... it was all about revenue....they can't cover $1 plus per day for every member....it isn't sustainable. Now with this new information...it is even more of a red flag program
It would be wonderful to see all our MyLot friends get paid....but, I personally do not see that happening.
It would be wonderful to see all our MyLot friends get paid....but, I personally do not see that happening.2 people like this
@workingmom50 (3091)
• United States
19 Apr 10
Definitely some more valid points for members and people thinking about joining to think about.
@sanjanaraman (237)
• United Arab Emirates
4 Jul 10
I actually just joined this site this morning and I made about 75 cents up till now. And then I realized how long it had been since I last checked mylot so when I went on just now, I saw this post. It's such a pity that this site isn't legitimate, I was really looking forward to making some good money out of it. But you know now that I come to think of it, it kinda did seem too good to be true. You do however have a really good point there, about where the articles came from,who they were by and where the money comes from. I'm just glad I read this before I wasted any more time on this site. I'm done there, at least until I see a proof of payment. BTW, there's one available on the net but its literally the only one I've been able to find. Has anyone else seen any other proofs? Thanks for sharing this, though.
2 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
5 Jul 10
Hello sanjanaraman,
All the proofs I saw were only lines in PayPal balances. The first to come was in Canadian Dollars and indeed fake because Readbud is supposed to pay in US dollars ; another has an amount of hundreds of dollars and was also fake. There is two other "proofs" in US$ indicating a payment by "Readbud".
When you look at the first page on Readbud, you read at the last line : "Owned and operated by The Content Network Australia 2010". So a good payment proof would have been from "The Content Network Australia" and not from "Readbud".... I never saw one.
Have a nice day.
1 person likes this
@re08dz (1941)
• Australia
19 Apr 10
Hi,
I'm not a member of Readbud so I can't really comment on payment etc. To me though, whats more of a concern (particularly as someone who has posted many articles on sites like ezine articles etc) is that in essence they are claiming other peoples articles as their own (by removing the author resource box) which is plagiarism. And that's what people should be taking note of - not only are they claiming work not their own, they (Readbud) are making money for themselves off of other people's hard work.
To those that are members I'd take a long hard look at a site that does that - it's much different to those article sites where people submit their own works and get paid on a revenue share basis or like ezine articles get the free link back to their site etc - this is plain and simple stealing.
1 person likes this
@hora_fugit (5862)
• India
22 Apr 10
I don't know why I joined this site. Maybe because I stumbled upon it and curiosity got hold of me... Could have done it in better way
Stealing from others and then fooling people with these stolen articles is something so illegal. I'm happy you people are taking action against it, reporrting and all.
And I read a long thread below. So informative Wonder what I missed (that saved you from joining)...
Stealing from others and then fooling people with these stolen articles is something so illegal. I'm happy you people are taking action against it, reporrting and all.
And I read a long thread below. So informative Wonder what I missed (that saved you from joining)...
@hardworkinggurl (37063)
• United States
9 Feb 11
I was not a member of myLot ten months ago so I did not get the pleasure to thank you for your hard efforts in discovering yet the biggest scam the site has to offer. I was searching the tool bar as till today members come to myLot asking if anyone has been paid and or are excited about having joined the site. So I came across your discussion and hope that even now more members will see it and understand that readbud is a complete scam.
It saddens me every time I read that members are waiting for payment. As we all know that no one will ever be paid and I do not understand how the site is still running and drawing in members.
Thanks for the information and I will use this discussion as a resource every time I read about a read bud discussion.
@Honeybuttz1397 (173)
• Philippines
14 Jul 10
This is very alarming. A dear friend of mine introduced me on readbud. She said it is a very interesting paying site because the articles are enjoyable to read and I can get paid. Since she started doing it, and joining is free, I decided to sign up. I was very excited, then in my first three days as a readbud member, I do not have available paid articles, because it was being upgraded. I waited for the next day then I received 14 articles to rate. To tell you honestly, I got engrossed with the articles. I'm a bit sad, when I checked ArticlesSnatch.com the pattern of how the articles were written are the same on readbud.com
Now it seems I'm not rating an original readbud articles.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160950)
• United States
23 Apr 10
This is a great discussion and you have done some people a big favor. I am glad I have not joined although I am constantly looking for new sources of revenue. I guess I will look some more. It just never seemed quite like a right fit.
.
@tonyllenium (6252)
• Italy
19 Apr 10
eheh yes readbud is a strange sit and earning system so may be they violete the copyright and may be this can become soon a scam site..mmh i don't know ..
@tonyllenium (6252)
• Italy
20 Apr 10
yes i think you are right..we will see..surely doubts about this system are so much and so after these news probably a part can be solved!!
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
26 Jul 10
Readbud is a scam site and that is very obvious from day one. So readers, you have to stop any activity you have with that site. Don't be lured with the big amount of rate for each article rated because they will not pay you in the end anyway. There have been so many firsthand testimonies in this regard. So stop with Readbud so this site will be paralyzed.
@noidaonline (152)
• India
22 May 10
I always though on the same lines but now i dont want to belive what you have written though very much true .... i guess. I have joined readbud and have earned 12 dollars till now. Hope what I am thinking is wrong and I get 50 dollars.
@randylovesdar (4932)
• United States
27 Jul 10
Is there anyway people can get their money if they file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau? I wonder if enough of us complain if this would help matters any? I am going to research this and let you know.
@FreeMoney4All (7)
• India
20 Apr 10
This is surely cheating in readbud's part.At least they should include the resource box.I think the owners of Ezine should take action against them.
1 person likes this
@zralte (4178)
• India
21 May 10
Could it be that someone who wants to purchase the article rate it first?
Okay, that's all I can come up with as far as rationalisation goes.
It's been a month since val reported them to ArticleSnatch, any news on that front? As readbud is still working, does that mean no action has been taken?
@topffer (42156)
• France
21 May 10
I am not a member. Your rationalization is against the TOS at ArticleSnatch. I heard that they are not offering anymore articles from ArticleSnatch : it seems that they have found an agreement. I read that they are now taking articles here and there in the Net, and are removing the authors' names as usual.
1 person likes this
@zralte (4178)
• India
21 May 10
I am a member and I wondered about that. Like some articles end with 'If you want more information, go to the link provided in the author's details.' 
I just assumed that the authors do not want their names since we are rating it. Whew....I can't quite make up my mind what to do about it - I mean my membership.
I just assumed that the authors do not want their names since we are rating it. Whew....I can't quite make up my mind what to do about it - I mean my membership.1 person likes this
