There was a craze back at the end of the 20th century, and partially into the 21st, where you would be "paid to surf the internet". They were ad-revenue pyramid schemes, since the more people you signed up for the service -- and thus, the more ads you managed to shove in the faces of people -- the more money the company made and the more money that you made.

Though these were all technically legitimate, the money you earned compared to the obnoxiousness of the ads, not to mention the fact that many of them required clicking on the ads, meant that you were either selling your time for much less than minimum wage or that you would get paid peanuts on the penny on the dollar.

Also typical of these services is not to give you a cheque until you earn a fixed minimum amount -- in AllAdvantage's case, it was $100.


If there's a similar scheme today, you can bet that it's the same thing.