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Can anyone explain in greater detail what the author is trying to say?
Sounds like a program will run in the background that clicks on (links?) and you get paid for clicking X number of times. Sounds fishy and progbably is, but can someone explain why?
What would it hurt to give it a try?
Here’s the link provided by the author.
I fugure I had to at least check it out since I opened the thread. Looks harmless enough at first glance (I’m on a work machine 
).
I’m afraid to go any further though.
Having no specific information about this particular offer, I will make the following observations.
First, at no point on the ppcappraisal website or the message board do you learn the name of the company or companies that will supposedly be paying you money. The message board post quotes a figure of 21 search engines, but does not name the search engines in question.
Second, there is no contact information. Clicking on the “Contact” link only sends you to a form with some boxes to fill out. You have no way to get in touch with these people, no way to report their name or any information about them. Also, the “Corporate” link sends you to a blank page.
Thirdly, I’ll note that the poster’s command of the English language is not terribly good, which is typically a bad sign,
Not to mention, where is your money kept? In what account?
I suspect there would be more of the form to fill out with (possibly) your bank account info once you hit the register button.
Not sure though, anyone on a computer they don’t care about willing to give this thing a go? Like the public library? 
It doesn’t make it clear how exactly this works. It says that it can run in the background, but what does it do? Does it display advertising? Does it use your computer to process information? I simply can’t think that either would pay as much as it promises.
Here’s a link to a MB that discusses it.
Half the people in that thread have tried it with little or no success and the other half are all yelling SCAM, but with no real proof of any specific wrongdoing.
The most common thought there is, “What is the true purpose of the scheme?”
BTW, no mention of test33.exe, or PPC at Snopes.
I’d say that it is definitely a scam, but probably not one in which YOU will be ripped off (aside from it being questionable whether you’ll actually be paid or other consequences mentioned below). However, it looks like if you run this program, you will be ripping off all the companies whose links are clicked.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a Big Thing nowadays, and many unscrupulous advertisers use programs like this to inflate their competitors’ costs and attept to drive them out of the market. By participating in something like this, you’d be drawing the heat off of them (and onto yourself) for activity that is essentially fraudulent.
I’m not aware of any laws specifically against this, but companies like Google and Yahoo! expend a lot of resources catching and preventing this type of activity, and while I can’t speak to any actions that they would be able to take against you, I wouldn’t want to risk the possibility of my IP address being denied access to their sites by doing this kind of thing.
I have no facts about this scheme in particular, however, I observe:
-The person describing the scheme is enthusiastically emphatic about how it isn’t a scam; this usually means it is.
-You get paid for… what? Doing nothing? Yeah, there are companies just lining up to pay you for doing nothing, because paying you to do nothing can be so… well… profitable.
-It sounds like you have to install something that could well be a trojan.
It sounds like this is possibly a program that is going to use your PC & IP address as the front end Trojan Horse ad click through scheme of some kind, where your PC is used to generate fake ad clicks which are billed to advertisers.
How you will be paid with given the nebulous contact info and long (month(s) plus) ramp up time before eligibility for payment even begins is another question.
Let me be a devils advocate and indicate it might be a program used to commit scams.
I.e. there are definitely sites on the net that will pay you for checking out ads.
Then there’s definitely a market for a program (perhaps free, adware, or paid) that cheats the system and pretends to check out ads on your behalf in the background.
xash and I have just deleted the live links to this probable scam.
The link went to a site where the person offered a “gaurantee” that it worked. My rule is that, if you can’t spell guarantee, then you’re toast. YMMV. But not on this board.
samclem GQ moderator
PS…don’t be surprised if we shut this thread down. Just don’t provide live links to the probable scammer’s website.