The Office of Fair Trading has shut down the website Mobiles4All.com, which distributed “free iPods” to some participants, due to its “matrix”-type award system.
The offer was based on a matrix system meaning that consumers were added to a waiting list and would only receive their items when they reached the top of the list.
However, they could only reach the top of the list when a set number of new customers had made a purchase and signed up. Typically this was set at 30 people for each gift, but the more valuable an offer, the more people needed to join before a gift was sent out.
Full details are available here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1554848,00.html