Playful Rewards

“How are people poor when an app like this exists?” asks a provocative ad for the mobile app Playful Rewards. “I can’t believe ppl still broke when this app will pay you just for playing games on ur phone,” says another.

So how can you cash in? According to these Meta ads, the answer is simple. Just download the app, pick a game and get paid to play.

The company’s website goes into further detail. After you download a game, you can earn points (which the company also refers to as coins) by completing in-game tasks or by taking a three-question survey about the game. You can then use these points to redeem cash or gift cards. According to Playful Rewards, the process is so easy that you can earn a gift card in as little as one day.

Sound too good to be true? Not according to the TikTok influencers and kidfluencers who claim they’ve made hundreds of dollars and encourage users to make in-app purchases that will purportedly be reimbursed by the company at a later date.

And to further reassure consumers that the app is legit, Playful Rewards touts a near 5-star rating on Trustpilot based on almost 5,000 customer reviews.

It’s not hard to see why an offer like this – getting paid to play games on your phone – can be appealing, especially to kids who are more susceptible to these kinds of marketing pitches. However, before you hit download, find out why this app may leave you waiting for your payday.

The first red flag comes from Trustpilot, which, despite Playful Rewards’ marketing, currently awards the app fewer than 3 stars based on 239 reviews. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Trustpilot includes a warning stating that Playful Rewards has been “displaying Trustpilot content incorrectly.”

But what may be even more concerning is the abundance of consumers reviews reporting that the company withholds rewards by falsely claiming that accounts are fraudulent.

And don’t be fooled by the app’s high rating in the Apple App and Google Play stores.

Despite having well over a 4-star rating in both stores, each store contains numerous 5-star reviews that report negative experiences similar to the ones above – including some from the Apple App Store that explain they only rated the app highly so that their comment could be seen by others.

Company responds

In response to TINA.org’s request for comment, Playful Rewards said that the app does not offer a “guarantee of income” and that rewards vary.

With regard to influencers’ claims that the company will reimburse in-app purchases, Playful Rewards noted that some games it offers include incentives that are tied to in-app purchases (e.g., “Spend $5 Get $10”) but that these rewards “are not reimbursements.”

As for consumer complaints about being wrongfully reported by the app for fraud, Playful Rewards told us that users are only flagged for fraud when there is “unusual behavior,” but that it takes user feedback “seriously” and works to resolve any cases of accounts that are flagged incorrectly.

Lastly, the company said that its advertised Trustpilot rating was originally linked to TheoremReach (Playful Rewards’ creator) and that it is in the process of updating the website to reflect its own rating. (As of today, the Trustpilot rating advertised on its website hasn’t changed.)

The bottom line

When a company claims you can make a boatload of money quickly and easily, it’s best to be skeptical. Before embarking on any purported money-making opportunity, always do your own research about the company.

And while reading online consumer reviews can be helpful, you shouldn’t judge a company solely by the amount of stars it has. This rating can be misleading since it doesn’t always correlate with what consumers are writing in the reviews.

Also of note, despite Playful Rewards being marketed by minors on TikTok, the game’s terms of use state that consumers must be “at least 18 years old or the age of majority” to play. (This is an issue that TINA.org has been digging into in our Monetizing Minors series, which recently featured kidfluencer Piper Rockelle, who Playful Rewards has enlisted to promote its game.)

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