Vulcun

This ad for Vulcun.com — a website where you compete against others for cash playing video games like League of Legends and Counter Strike — may lead you to believe that you can get $50 in your account, no strings attached.

But that’s just how they play you. As is often the case, free here doesn’t really mean free. How so? It carries a cost.

After a reader alerted TINA.org to the ad promising free account money, we plugged in the promo code at Vulcun.com ourselves to see what would happen. A drop-down box of text relayed the full story, i.e., the strings tied to the deal:

This promo code allows you to get 100% deposit bonus. We will match your deposit dollar for dollar upto (sic) $1000. This will be released into your account as you enter paid contests (10% of entry fees). …

So it turns out that in order to realize the “free” $50, you first have to match that amount with your own deposit and then gamble a bunch and hope that you stay afloat long enough to reap the full matching bonus — a bit more complicated than the initial ad lets on.

Click here for more of our coverage on so-called deposit bonuses.