Is the “Free Ring Doorbell” Offer going around Facebook a SCAM?

Have you seen the “free Ring doorbell” offer going around?  Starting yesterday, it seemed like everyone and their brothers were posting it on Facebook.  I decided to check it out.

Unfortunately, the Ring Referral program has come to an abrupt end.

I dove into this thoroughly expecting it to be a full on scam.  But it’s not.  It’s actually a legit referral program from the actual Ring website.

BUT

There are some catches.  So let’s go through the whole offer, shall we?

You have to join Ring to be part of their referral program.  That’s logical.

So to do that you have to do two things – make an account on the Ring website and download the Ring Neighbors app.  If you download the app first, you do have the option to make your account there or sign in with an account already made on the Ring website.

None of this costs anything.  So that’s good.  BUT you don’t have a free Ring doorbell yet.

After you make your account and download the Neighbors app you have to refer 10 9 people to do the same.  (Edited to add: when I signed up I was given $10 just for signing up.  So only 9 referrals are needed to because you start with $10.  But make sure you sign up through a referral link to get $10 for joining.)  For each person you refer that completes the two steps, you get a $10 credit.  Nine referrals + the $10 credit you were given for signing up is enough to get the basic first gen Ring doorbell ($99.99 retail).  You entice them to do this buy pointing out that if they refer 10 friends, they get a Ring doorbell for free too.  And on and on…  If you only get 5 friends to sign up, then you could still purchase a Ring doorbell at a $50 $60 discount.  (5 friends = $50 + $10 credit you were given)

(Edited to add: you can redeem your credits on anything from the Ring website.  If you refer MORE than 9 people, you’ll continue to earn credits that can be redeemed on any Ring products – cameras, motion detector lights, security systems, etc).

You have to download and keep the Neighbors app for the duration because that’s the only place (in the app) to access your referral code.

So what is the Neighbors app?

The Ring Neighbors program started out as a way for owners of Ring security cameras to instantly share their Ring videos with neighbors, alerting one another to crime and safety issues in real time. Neighbors proved so popular and effective that we decided to open it up to everyone, regardless of whether or not they have a Ring device. Once the person you refer through the referral program downloads the Neighbors app, signs up for a Ring.com account and is verified, they’ll be automatically enrolled in the free Ring Neighbors program.

So if you are cool with those terms, then you can refer your way to a free Ring doorbell.

To be completely thorough, I downloaded the Neighbors app and took a look.  My initial concern was privacy and getting notifications from my “area”.  

My information isn’t shared with anyone.  I am not “connected” to anyone in the app.  If someone in my radius did send out an alert (like “suspicious person driving around the neighborhood”) I would get it but they wouldn’t know they were sending it to me nor would I know which neighbor was sending it.

Also, I was able to set my radius to zero miles so I don’t have to worry about notifications if I don’t want them.

At no point during this process did I have to enter any payment information. 

So, is it a scam?  I’m going with NO.  It’s not.  This is really a referral program from the Ring website.  Being in the blogging/marketing world, I’m familiar with referral programs.  This is pretty much the same as FilterEasy.  I’ve been getting FREE air filters for my home HVAC unit for about 3 years now for using FilterEasy’s referral program. (and there is no app download required.)

Let me know if you get your FREE Ring Doorbell!