I first met Freecash app after clicking a sponsored TikTok video with dubious claims. The ad did not advertise the app by name, but instead showed a young woman expressing her joy at being apparently hired by TikTok for $35 an hour to watch videos on its “For You” page.
When I clicked on the link to “order now,” it sent me to a website with the TikTok and Freecash logos, with a download link for the Freecash app. “Get paid to scroll,” the site reads. “Join the thousands who earn daily by watching TikTok videos and cash out instantly.”
In the first month of 2026, Freecash has already become popular among US users. This week it reached second place on Apple’s free iOS download charts, between ChatGPT and Gemini. The download crash comes with a bunch of ads promoting the Freecash app.
The app appears to be using a common strategy of offering rewards to users who share their information or complete online tasks. As a kid, I remember entering my dad’s email and address into some hacks to get a free iTunes gift card, which never delivered the promised $20 in downloads and probably just clogged up his spam inbox. (Please forgive me.)
While Freecash actually pays money to users, it is not for social media scrolling. The app’s business model focuses on getting new users to play mobile games and then providing players with cash rewards. Those promises of straight pay to scroll aimlessly on TikTok sound too good to be true, because they are.
Ben Rathe, a spokesperson for TikTok, says that Freecash ads violate TikTok’s money laundering rules. Rathe says the ads in question were removed, after WIRED reached out, for what the company sees as deceptive marketing. The social network prohibits ads designed to “swindle people for money or personal data,” according to TikTok’s advertising policies.
The company behind Freecash says it didn’t directly produce the ads I encountered on TikTok. Instead, the marketing was “created by third-party partners,” said Elizaveta Shulyndina, a spokeswoman for Freecash’s parent company. “We are reviewing the work with our relevant partners and are intensifying our vigilance.”
Back in my TikTok feed, after I clicked on that first sponsored post, the number of promoted videos promoting Freecash grew endlessly. A post with more than 150,000 likes showed a mother and her young son going to the store together, because she could buy “her son whatever he wants since I get paid to watch TikTok.” Some of the sponsored videos showed many people getting excited about the amount of money they get for scrolling on TikTok.
It is not clear whether the women and children in the TikTok ads are Freecash advertisers. Most of the ads come from TikTok accounts that have a small following or accounts that don’t have any publicly viewed videos.
When I finally downloaded the app, instead of quickly finding ways to find some kind of navigation on TikTok, I was directed to download several mobile games, such as. Monopoly Go again Disney Solitaire.
After that, I was finally given the option to complete challenges within a limited time to earn money. I Monopoly Go challenges included cash prizes ranging from $0.01, for playing the game for two minutes each day, to $123, for reaching level 300 in less than three months.
The company behind Freecash, called Almedia, is based in Berlin. Almedia uses the Freecash app as an advertising platform for both mobile game developers and new users who not only install apps but also spend money.
