[9/16 Update] After a few quiet months, Swagbucks deactivated my account again. After some research and a carefully worded email, Swagbucks finally unlocked it for me. It really feels like I keep testing SB’s limits. Today I want to share the details:

Reason for the ban: SB thought I was running multiple accounts by myself.

My analysis: I registered one account using my own information and another using LD’s information, with the same address for both. Later, to do money-making and moneymaker offers, I would finish offers on one account first, then switch browsers and do the other account. When cashing out, I also did one right after the other. Since I couldn’t use a VPN, every login was obviously from the same IP address. My guess is that these patterns made SB think I opened two accounts myself, or that one person was managing both accounts.

Underlying reason: I had completed a lot of offers, referred a lot of people, and built up a large SB balance without redeeming it. So from SB’s perspective, banning my account maximized their own benefit.

Email strategy: The first thing to understand is that SB does not actually know whether the person logging in is me or LD. Everything is based on their rule-based judgment. So if you just sit there and do nothing, SB will most likely keep the money. Directly banning an account is the lowest-cost option for them anyway, and some people may feel they are in the wrong and won’t fight it. But if you can clear up their doubts in your reply, they may reactivate your account. So my strategy was:

  • Start by expressing strong disappointment about the ban, and state that “I” (LD) am a loyal SB user and have been using it for 2 years. This indirectly shows that the account has been operated by the same person for those 2 years.
  • Say that because SB is a good website and you can really earn money from it, I recommended it to many relatives and friends. This indirectly suggests that a good website should not ban users casually or ban accounts just to keep their money. It also helps explain that the large amount of SB points came from legitimate referrals.
  • Clearly state that only “I” (LD) operate my own account, while also mentioning that it may have looked suspicious because another household account used the same computer, resulting in the same IP. This directly addresses their concern.
  • Attach a photo of “my” (LD’s) Driver License and say that it matches the name on the current account. This proves identity and provides real supporting evidence. In fact, I had already submitted the DL the last time the account was unlocked, but sending it again was fine.
  • Ask customer service to forward the email to the department that specifically handles deactivated accounts.

Result: One week later, I received an email saying the account was unlocked and the points were restored. I immediately cashed out to PayPal!

My thoughts:
  • The SB website is still fairly reasonable. If you lay out the facts and explain things clearly, customer service may unban your account.
  • Communication and standing up for yourself really matter. In the US, many times if you push for it, you can protect your interests. Of course, simply throwing a tantrum or insulting people does not work.
  • If you manage multiple SB accounts, I suggest not logging into them from the same browser. A more practical method is to use one account on a phone with 4G and the other on a computer, so the IP addresses are different.

My experience

LD and I each have a Swagbucks account, and we often ran both accounts for various moneymaker deals. Between the two of us, our accounts were locked three times in total (Deactivate). The typical symptom was being automatically logged out, and when trying to log back in, seeing the message “Your Account has been deactivate.” Through emails and uploading various documents, we eventually got all of them unlocked again. I’m sharing these experiences in the hope that they’ll help others. I also want to suggest that if your account gets locked, don’t just give up. Try your best to get it reinstated and redeem the SB you worked hard to earn!

Account lock experience #1: age issue!

The reason for the first lockout was actually pretty interesting. At the time, my Swagbucks account had about 2490SB, just a little short of redeeming for a $25 PayPal payout. I couldn’t find any moneymaker deals for the moment, and being just a few SB short was driving me crazy, so I decided to do a few surveys to earn some SB.

I filled out my basic information, including a fake age in my 40s, and planned to rush through a few surveys to earn enough SB for redemption. Unexpectedly, several surveys screened me out halfway through for not meeting the basic requirements, which wasted quite a bit of time. Then I suddenly realized that even if you get screened out, you still receive 1SB. So I sped up and kept filling out surveys randomly, just hoping to get screened out immediately and collect that 1SB. After trying a few, I discovered that if I entered age 5, I would be screened out right away. I was thrilled, so I started putting an age under 10 on every survey, and eventually earned the final 10SB I needed!

After waiting several days and still not seeing the $25 PayPal arrive, I decided to log in and check. To my surprise, after logging in I saw a line of red text: Your Account Has Been Deactivate. I was stunned. My $25! At the time, I was pretty angry too. I had worked hard for that $25, and now it looked like it was just going to be taken away. I had only filled out a few surveys casually — was it really my fault that I didn’t qualify for them? So I went to Submit Request:

I filled out the form, explained that it was an Account Deactivate issue, and after submitting it, I received an email with a case number so I could reply directly to that thread later. After waiting a few more days, I finally learned the result: the account had been locked because I entered false ages.

I hadn’t realized the US has such strict rules for internet use by children under 13. So I had no choice but to follow their instructions, sign the required age-verification document, and attach my Driver License. After sending everything, I heard nothing for several days, so I replied a few more times to ask for an update. Unexpectedly, SB customer service kept resending the same email to me, and each time I had to resend all the documents again. At some point, the support contact even switched from Swagbucks customer service to MyPoints customer service, and I had no idea why.

Fortunately, after I followed up a few times, I finally passed the review, the account was unlocked, and the delayed $25 finally arrived more than a month later!

So my advice is: if you want to earn points through surveys, be very careful with the age information you enter. Putting yourself in your 40s or 50s may be fine, but don’t enter an age that’s way too young!

Account lock experience #2: too many points

The second lockout happened during a period when there were a lot of moneymaker deals. LD and I did several in a row and earned quite a lot of SB. But after I redeemed from my account, it was suddenly logged out automatically. When I tried to log back in, I found that the account had been locked. So I hurried back to the same page as before to submit a ticket. At the time I was pretty nervous, because focusing heavily on moneymaker deals is obviously something Swagbucks doesn’t like to see — especially since for every deal, both LD and I had done it from the same address/IP address.

Somewhat surprisingly, there wasn’t much back-and-forth. A few days later, Swagbucks automatically unlocked my account.

Looking back, I think it was probably because a large batch of points posted all at once, and SB may have wanted to review whether they were earned through legitimate channels.

Lockout Experience 3: VPN!

A while back, I went to China for a trip. While I was there, I casually opened Swagbucks from time to time to see whether there were any new money-maker deals. However, it seems that the Swagbucks website isn’t accessible from China, so I naturally turned on my newly purchased Express VPN and specifically chose a California server. After browsing a few times, one day I suddenly couldn’t log in. It showed Account Deactivate. I then checked LD’s account, and to my surprise that one had also been Deactivate. I knew we hadn’t done anything shady, so I quickly went to submit a ticket. After a week, there was still no response, so I followed up on both accounts to ask for an update. Another week passed, and still nothing!

So I quickly looked into why accounts get locked, especially in relation to logging in from a different location or using a VPN. It was pretty discouraging.

Bottom line: never access Swagbucks while connected to a VPN or from a non-US IP, especially when you’re earning SB. If you do, your account could be locked without mercy, and you may not get any reply or any real chance to recover it.

The reason is simple. Swagbucks is basically a middleman for advertisers, and those advertisers are targeting US users when they place ads on Swagbucks. Naturally, they are paying for each impression or click. So if non-US users are viewing ads or earning SB, that will obviously hurt the advertisers’ campaign performance. Over time, advertisers may complain to Swagbucks or simply stop advertising there altogether. That’s why SB is extremely strict about this issue. If they catch it, they’ll ban the account. Even for people who used a VPN unintentionally, SB often doesn’t seem very willing to help.

After reading several cases, it seemed that very few people got their accounts unlocked, so all I could do was keep following up by email from time to time and ask about the status. At one point, I even considered claiming the account had been hacked to see whether that might help reverse the decision, but later I got too busy to deal with it. Unexpectedly, after more than a month, LD’s account received an email saying it had been unlocked! No reason was given.

My own account, however, had no movement at all. I kept bothering customer service but got no reply, and it felt like the account was dead. Then one day I had a sudden thought: if I were Swagbucks, what would I want to see? The answer was obvious—proof that this account really belonged to a US user would solve the problem. So I immediately took a photo of my ID and continued following up with customer service. That actually worked. About a week later, I received an email saying my account had been unlocked.

Clearly, this lockout was caused by the VPN. My guess is that Swagbucks detected my VPN use for two possible reasons:

  • The IP changed constantly with each login
  • The IP did not belong to a Residential IP (for example, a local internet service provider), but instead belonged to a virtual network provider

My Suggestions

  • Swagbucks Submit Request link (If you have any issues, you can handle them here.)
  • If your Swagbucks account gets locked immediately after registration, it’s very likely because of a VPN or because you used a company IP. I recommend going home and registering with a clean IP.
  • If your account gets locked, don’t just sit and wait. Send more emails and proactively provide documentation. Don’t let the SB you previously earned from money-maker deals go to waste. As long as you make the request, Swagbucks will reply eventually—it’s just a matter of time.

If you’ve had other lockout experiences, feel free to leave a comment. I can also help analyze your situation and see whether there may be a way to get the account unlocked.