The “What happens at 1,000,000,000?” » is blowing up all the counters. Its concept is as simple as it is surprising, it promises €5 to all people who enter a code (visible quite easily when connecting to the page). While this may seem too big to be true, many Internet users wanted to try their luck, to try to unravel the mystery behind what looks like a classic scam.
But this time, without anyone really knowing how or why, the scam seems to be out for you. Everyone who entered the code received €5 in their PayPal account within a few moments.
A wealthy donor or… a commercial operation?
There the mystery deepens again, who could be crazy enough to give €5 to the whole Earth? Without receiving anything in return. Could this be the idea of a particularly philanthropic billionaire? To find out, several Internet users decided to investigate, and the reality could turn out to be much more commercial than we hoped.
Indeed, this website seems to have been built by a marketing and communications team. It is therefore a safe bet that this is an advertising campaign (the ingenuity and risk-taking of which must be recognized).
Here is the link to access the site and try your luck (being very careful!)
€5 for data
Because in reality, there is no question of receiving €5 in exchange for “nothing”, the wording of this sentence is misleading. Of course you don’t have to pay, or subscribe to overpriced subscriptions or watch advertisements for long minutes, but you still have to give your email address.
We can then easily imagine that the website is in reality only there to collect hundreds of thousands, even millions, of valid and used email addresses, to use them for commercial purposes. However, several Internet users have noted that at no time in the registration process on the site is it mentioned that advertisements will be sent to the e-mail address provided.
Gold this clarification is mandatory to use personal data for commercial canvassing purposes. This is one of the great strengths of the GDPR in Europe, which requires companies to request informed consent from the user on how their data will be used in the future.
Can we recover €5 without risk?
Faced with this risk of seeing your email address in shady data lists, then sold on the black market to several companies so that they advertise in your mailbox, €5 seems quite little in the end.
But then, do we have a chance of being able to recover this money, without endangering our personal data? Although zero risk does not exist, it is possible to get this money backlimiting risks as much as possible.
To do this, simply create a PayPal account and an email address which will only be used during this operation. These two accounts should not be linked to your online identity. It is quite easy to create a temporary email address. Sites exist specifically for this, this is particularly the case for Ten Minutes Mail.
In all likelihood, it is the neobank Trade Republic which would be hidden behind this unique communication operation of its kind. The site still appears to be working, but the end of the countdown is fast approaching. It should be reached around 4 p.m. this Friday.
