I've been a member for several years with www.iPodSweepstakes.com. About 6 weeks ago I stopped receiving the daily e-mails with the opportunity to earn points toward redeeming Apple iPods by clicking on various merchants and participating in their offers.

When I typed iPodSweepstakes.com in my address field, it opened mpfree.com, a website for downloading free music. When I typed iPodSweepstakes.com in my Search field, there were a lot of Scam Alerts and complaints.

I'm very disappointed in all the scams online. I've lost over $1, 000 in cash and in merchandise that I was saving points to redeem. It's very disheartening as I invest a lot of time and energy, as well as money, in completing surveys, reading e-mails, signing up for trial offers, participating in forums, etc.. I wonder if the merchants, such as Apple, are in on these scams with the Market Research Companies.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to protect myself or to help end these online scams, or claim the money or merchandise I earned. Are these people ever caught and made to pay retribution?

Thank You,
Nancy North
[email protected]