“Easiest money you ever made!” the billionaire said in a post on X.
The terms outlined by Musk seemed too good to be true. As it turns out, they were.
Earning $20 had never been so easy, at least according to billionaire Elon Musk. All you had to do was convince people to take a selfie and give a thumbs-up. But as the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, there’s a good chance it isn’t.
Musk’s $20 giveaway. Over the weekend, Musk announced that a new initiative designed to “build awareness about the election” for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The premise was simple. All you had to do was sign up to be a “block captain” and collect selfies of Wisconsin residents holding up a picture of conservative judge along with a thumbs-up.
That was it. You didn’t even need to be from Wisconsin to participate, Musk said, though the pictures you sent in did have to be of people from Wisconsin.
“Easiest money you ever made!” he said in an X post. In another post, he explained that people who participate could “make over $1000 in one day just by getting the vote out in Wisconsin!”
The fine print. Of course, it wasn’t that easy. Gizmodo did a deep-dive into the contest, which is organized by Musk’s America PAC, and quickly found that not just anyone could apply to be a block captain. Applicants had to be a registered voter in Wisconsin, according to the terms and conditions for America PAC’s Block Captain Program.
By Tuesday morning, the language about having to be a registered voter had been removed from the terms and conditions. The original language can still be viewed on the Internet Archive.
Furthermore, let’s say you met the criteria to be a block captain. It still doesn’t guarantee you’ll be approved for the program. That’s up to Musk’s America PAC
“America PAC, in its sole discretion, has the authority to approve or deny a person's application to be a Block Captain,” the program’s terms and conditions read.
The selfies. Getting paid for the selfies you help collect isn’t that straightforward, either. First, the America PAC limits selfies to one per household, which means: “Each household is limited to receiving one $20. For example, if two people in the same household submit Pro-Schimel Photos, America PAC will only pay $20 (not $40) for those submissions.”
It’s not clear how the America PAC will detect selfies that come in from the same household.
The payout date. OK, let’s say you meet all of the above requirements and somehow don’t double-dip when it comes to collecting selfies from the same household. Your next question might be: When will I see the dough? The answer: Who knows.
“America PAC makes no warranties, whether express or implied, regarding any specific timeframe in which payments for the Block Captain Program will be issued,” the PAC states in the terms and conditions. “Due to a high participation rate in the Block Captain Program, Participants should not necessarily expect to receive incentive payments within a month or even two months.”
The bottom line. This isn’t the first time Musk has fudged the details of one of his giveaways. Last year, Musk made waves for giving out checks of $1 million per day at “random” to people in the run-up to the presidential election.
“We will be awarding $1 million randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk said on Oct. 19.
The billionaire was sued by a Philadelphia district attorney over the giveaway, who argued that it was an illegal lottery. At a hearing in November, Musk’s lawyers said that the sweepstakes was not, in fact, random.
“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Chris Gober, a lawyer for Musk, said at the time. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”
Image | Gage Skidmore
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