Reward500.com Gift Card Review – Real Reward or Scam?

Reward500.com reads like good news for a thin wallet. Its offer: a big gift card from a famous store, unlocked by a few quick steps.

Short on details, big on color, the page nudges you toward one button. Click it and the deal shifts into something very different from what you were shown.

Overview

What Reward500.com claims to offer

The promise sits in Reward500.com’s big gift card headline and claim button. Similar pages usually back it with a famous retailer’s logo and numbered steps ending in “claim your card.”

Each step looks minor on pages like this. You enter your email, answer a few questions and complete a few “recommended deals,” which stay vague until you’re already in.

The retailer isn’t the one making this offer

The named retailer doesn’t operate this offer. It didn’t approve it, and it won’t send you a card. Its name is borrowed to give the site trust it can’t earn.

The claim button doesn’t lead to the retailer. It opens a tracking link from an affiliate network, and the domain hosting the offer isn’t the retailer’s website either.

What the “steps” are actually asking for

The gift card exists to bait you into a lead-generation funnel. Buttons like this one typically lead to these:

• A link that logs your click and pays the operator once you sign up.
• Forms requesting your phone number, email, address and date of birth.
• Sponsored offers like paid trials, subscriptions, app installs and credit applications.
• Conditions that change as you go, leaving the card forever one deal away.
• A reward with no named company behind its delivery.

Treat Reward500.com as what it is: a gift card scam. Your details stay with you, its deals stay untouched, and you shouldn’t expect a card, whatever the page claims.

What We Found on Reward500.com

Here’s what we noticed when we looked at Reward500.com:

• The page’s title reads "Complete Your Registration – $750 Gift Card".
• Its claim button opens a tracking link on glctrk.org, an affiliate network domain, not the website of the store it names.
• The same affiliate ID appears on waldealz.shop, a gift card page MalwareTips has already exposed.

How the Reward500.com Gift Card Scam Works

It helps to know the pattern. Reward funnels like Reward500.com all read from one script, and only the store name, the amount and the domain differ.

Step 1: It starts with a message picking you out

For most visitors, the trail begins with a text, an email or a social media ad saying they’ve been “selected” to test products or claim a famous store’s reward.

That headline amount is what makes you pause. What makes you believe it is the store’s name, which brings trust an unknown website would never manage to build alone.

Don’t read too much into a message that knows your first name or a recent order. That detail can come from an earlier data leak, not from the store.

Step 2: The landing page frames everything as fast

Like similar pages, Reward500.com usually lays out a few numbered steps and a bright claim button. Being asked to “Complete a few deals” sounds quick, with an obvious stopping point.

Many of these pages pad the offer with countdown timers, “only a few cards left” banners and counters of people who “already claimed.” No one can check those numbers.

Step 3: Behind the button is an affiliate network

Clicking “Claim” or “Start now” doesn’t open the store. You’re routed through a tracking link that takes note of the operator’s affiliate ID and the offer behind your click.

Affiliate links are normal enough. Here, they show the offer was never about rewarding a winner. From the first click, you’re being sold as a lead.

Step 4: Your details turn into something to sell

The first request is your email. Later pages ask for your name, phone number, home address and date of birth, and a “survey” about income and shopping habits often follows.

Each answer adds to your worth as a lead for marketers. Even if you abandon the forms halfway, what you’ve entered can keep generating emails, texts and calls for months.

Look closely at each screen for boxes that are already ticked. Leave them, and one “Continue” click can share your details with dozens of “marketing partners.”

Step 5: Sponsored offers with real costs attached

Sponsored deals stand between you and the card. You’re asked to complete free trials, streaming plans, insurance quotes, credit applications, or mobile games played to a set level.

A lot of them ask for your card number. An uncanceled trial can become a full-price subscription, and a credit application can leave a hard inquiry on your report.

Step 6: Nothing arrives at the end

A few deals in, you’d expect a card. What you get is a message: more deals needed, a deal “didn’t track,” or your claim is “pending review.”

By then, the operator has been paid for each sign-up you completed. The card was never the product, which is why there’s no one to contact about it.

Red Flags of Offers Like Reward500.com

Look for these signs, which appear on almost every reward funnel. The first one settles it all by itself.

The card requires completing “deals” first

Paid trials and credit applications are never part of a store’s own gift card giveaway. “Complete a few deals” marks an affiliate funnel.

The prize dwarfs what you’re asked to do

It’s true that stores run giveaways. It isn’t true that they hand out cards worth hundreds for a form. The bigger the reward, the stronger the pull, and that’s intentional.

The domain isn’t the retailer’s own

That well-known store name in the URL? Inside an unfamiliar address, it means an advertiser is leaning on the brand, not the store. Check before reading on.

Follow the button: it leaves the site

The real destination is one hover away. On a computer, place your cursor on the claim button, and these pages reveal a tracking domain instead of the retailer.

Nobody is accountable for the card

Nobody identifies themselves as the one sending the card or answering for it. There’s no company, address or support contact, and a tiny “not affiliated” footer line doesn’t fix that.

A message you had no reason to expect

If a sender you don’t recognize texts or emails to say you’ve “won” or been “selected,” that isn’t proof of a prize. It’s the first step of the funnel.

When a clock and a counter rush you

The ticking clock is there so you’ll skip the checking. A real store promotion holds steady if you take a day to look into it.

Why the Store’s Name Isn’t Proof

The name is the sales pitch, so scammers go for famous stores. Costco, Target, Walmart and Amazon gift cards are popular picks, but any trusted brand does the job.

Big retailers know their names get misused, and they regularly warn customers about fake surveys and reward messages. They ask people not to enter details via unexpected links.

In 2013, operators of “free gift card” text campaigns that pushed people into paid offers were sued by the US Federal Trade Commission. The script has hardly changed since.

Don’t let a recognizable name do the convincing. Check the retailer’s own website first, because an offer it never mentions is not an offer it’s making.

What a Real Store Promotion Looks Like

Retailers really do give away gift cards, which is why it helps to recognize a genuine offer. Side by side, the differences are easy to see.

• The announcement comes from the store’s own channels, meaning its website, app or verified social accounts.
• There are official rules, and they name the company running it, the prize and the date it ends.
• No trials, app installs or credit applications are required.
• Your receipt carries the survey address, and your store account or app holds your loyalty rewards.
• Winners hear back through the account or channel they used to enter, not through a random text.

A single failed check is reason enough to treat the gift card as bait. A real promotion won’t hide its conditions behind a “claim” button.

What the “Deals” Can Cost You

The card never shows up, but chasing it costs you something real. Here are the usual costs:

• Recurring charges. A missed cancellation window turns a free trial or discounted plan into a full-price renewal.
• Credit inquiries. Every loan or credit card application in the chain can add a hard inquiry to your credit file.
• Spam and robocalls. Marketers you never signed up with get your email, phone number and address.
• Follow-up scams. To the next scammer, a list of people who replied to a “you won” offer is worth a lot. Count on more phishing and fake delivery texts.
• Unwanted apps. Stop playing, and the games and apps you installed to “unlock” the reward can still track you or push ads.
• Lost time. Hours go into surveys, games and offers, all chasing a reward that was never going to arrive.

The money flows one way. Every sign-up pays the operator, the visitor ends up with the bills, and the card that started it all never exists.

Same Funnel, New Domain

Think of Reward500.com as one copy among many. These reward pages are cheap to make, often built with website builders, and they usually go offline within days of a report.

When the same affiliate ID shows up in claim links on several domains, as it often does, that points to one operator running many pages at once.

When you compare them directly, the pages share these fingerprints:

• A headline built around a famous store’s name and a large gift card amount
• A short list of three or four numbered steps that ends with “claim your card”
• A demand that you “complete a few deals” to qualify
• A claim button that leads to an affiliate tracking link
• Counters and timers that nobody can verify

See those features together? Then the store name and the amount tell you nothing. It’s the same funnel with a fresh address.

How to Check a Gift Card Offer Before You Click

It only takes two minutes to tell them apart: the genuine promotion checks out, and the reward funnel doesn’t.

1. Skip the link and go to the store’s official website or app on your own. Then look for the promotion there.
2. Before you click the claim button on a computer, hover over it. Seeing a tracking domain instead of the store’s address answers the question.
3. A quick search of the site’s name with “scam” or “review” helps. New funnels often have no history at all, which is itself a warning.
4. Check the small print. If it mentions “deals,” “offers” or “participation requirements,” the card has strings attached.

Close the tab the moment a check fails. There’s nothing on that page worth trading your email address for, never mind your card details.

What to Do If You Have Fallen Victim to This Scam

Gave Reward500.com your details or signed up for deals through it? Act now, because most of the damage can be limited when you move before the trial periods end.

1. Cancel trials and subscriptions, all of them. Go deal by deal, canceling each before its trial ends, and keep every cancellation confirmation.
2. Review your statements. Any recurring payment or small test charge you don’t recognize should be disputed with your bank or card issuer.
3. Replace any exposed card. Ask your bank for a new card number if you typed card details into any page in this funnel.
4. Scan for new accounts. Check your credit report for any inquiry or account you didn’t open if a loan or credit card application was among the forms you filled in.
5. Watch for follow-up messages. Any text or email mentioning “your reward” or “a problem with your claim” is a scam, so leave its links alone.
6. Secure your device. Take back any notification permission these pages received, and run Malwarebytes Free if you installed something. AdGuard blocks many ads that lead to them.
7. Update recycled passwords. Signing up on the site with a password you use somewhere else means those other accounts need a new one.
8. Block and unsubscribe. Block the numbers that start calling or texting. For email, unsubscribe only from companies you recognize and mark the rest as spam.
9. Report it. In the US, file at ReportFraud.ftc.gov; elsewhere, use your national fraud service. Also report the ad or message and tell the retailer whose name was used.

If the charge or subscription just won’t cancel, contact your bank or card issuer, which can usually dispute it. Most give you a few months, so act now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Reward500.com gift card real?

No, it isn’t. Reward500.com is a gift card scam that funnels you through affiliate offers to gather your details and sell you paid deals. The card never gets sent.

Is Reward500.com connected to the store it names?

No. A real promotion would appear on the retailer’s own website. This offer just borrows the store’s name, and often its logo, to look trustworthy.

How does Reward500.com make money?

Through affiliate commissions. Your email address, your survey answers and any deal you complete all earn a payment from advertisers, and the operator keeps a share of each.

I completed some deals. Will I get the gift card?

No. The best move now is to stop: no more deals. Cancel the trials and subscriptions you started, watch your statements closely, and skip any “pending” reward messages.

Why do I keep seeing the same offer on new websites?

The operators expect to get reported fast. Since the pages are cheap to make, they just rebuild the same funnel under a new domain and a new store name.

What should I do if I get one of these offers by text?

Don’t tap the link. Pass the text along to 7726 (SPAM) instead, a step that helps carriers in the US and the UK block similar messages, and then delete it.

The Bottom Line

That big gift card is bait, plain and simple. Reward500.com uses it alongside a famous store’s name to funnel you into paid affiliate deals, which are its real business.

Do not enter your details. Do not start any deals. And if a site ever asks you to complete offers for a free gift card, just close the page.

For those who already took part: cancel every trial before it renews and check your statements. Any reward message that lands afterward should be treated as the next scam.