Offerpal Names New CEO in Wake of "Scam" Allegations

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 5, 2009 - 11:46am.

Fremont, Calif. - Offerpal Media, a provider of monetization services for online game and social application developers, announced that it has replaced its CEO, after a controversy erupted over the past week concerning whether some of its practices qualify as "scams."

Anu Shukla has been replaced as CEO by George Garrick "after many months of searching," Shukla said in a statement.

However, the move comes in the wake of Shukla's appearance on a panel with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, during which she called Arrington's claims that some of the "offers" made by Offerpal amounted to scams "sh*t, double sh*t and bullsh*t."

Arrington argued that Offerpal tricks gamers into paying more for virtual currency via its free special offers than they would by simply paying cash.

In the wake of the allegations raised, social games firms Zynga and RockYou, announced they would take steps to remove such offers from their practices, while MySpace changed its terms of service to reflect a "zero tolerance policy for app scams."

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/t2xqv (Offerpal statement)

http://snipurl.com/t2xti (TechCrunch)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10391163-36.html

http://snipurl.com/t2xox (VentureBeat: Shukla interview)