There are several sites offering free gift cards. You might have received an email or two saying that you can receive free $50, $75 or $100 gift cards by responding to the email or clicking on a link. Some will let you register for different free services or products. You will be required to provide information, select options or perks that suits your interests, and then go through the same process. Sometimes, you will be required to provide referrals by giving email addresses of somebody you know. Most of the sites that function in this typical setup are bogus.

Such email will contain subject or text saying something like:

• free gift cards no participation required
• free wal mart gift cards
• free 50 gift cards
• free kmart gift cards
• free itunes gift cards
• free clothing gift cards
• free printable gift cards
• free restaurant gift cards
• free visa gift card

Generally speaking, when an something presents itself as a high prize in exchange for an easy task, then chances are, that thing is fraud. There really is no such thing as easy money in this world.

While a lot of the gift cards offered are hoax (especially through unsolicited email), there are still those who offer legitimate gift cards. Why is it free? It’s because people use it for marketing purposes. Of course it’s totally not free since you will be required to do something like post a comment, link to an article, or sign-up to a membership site.

Most of those who provide free gift cards are bloggers, who in one way or another, takes advantage of the free gift card to attract as many customers as possible in exchange for higher returns. Most of the bloggers or webmasters who does this, offers a free gift card in exchange for small tasks. In this case, the value of the gift cards ranges from $5 to at most $25 or $50. Other bloggers who offer free gift cards at $50 or $100 and up usually does it through a lottery or a draw. This means that they let everyone do one specific thing – probably sign-up or subscribe to a certain website or purchase a certain product then provide a proof of purchase or transaction. All those who joined or availed will then be included in the raffle.

Other bigger companies offer legitimate free gift cards. One good example is the Coles Giant Gift Card Giveaway promo. In this promo, to earn a Coles Gift Card of any denomination from $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 and more, you need to accumulate points. These points are earned every time you spend $30 or more in one transaction or through buying specially marked products. Many businesses engage in such promos to attract more and more customers. The more popular it is the better. This is specially true during holiday season or any sale period.

The point is to make sure that if ever you’re interested in free gift cards offered by a website, you need to be very careful before totally trusting it because any action done will be at your own risk.