What is the ruling on earning money from advertising websites such as Neobux by paying some money upfront? You pay a sum of money first, five hundred dollars, to subscribe to it for one year, then every week it sends you ads to look at, and every week it gives you fifty dollars, for a year, thirteen months.

What is the ruling on such transactions?

Praise
be to Allah

If you cannot interact with these websites except by
paying a subscription fee, then it is not permissible for you to deal
with them, because that comes under the heading of gambling with one’s
money and riba-based transactions in the contract.

Dr Saami as-Suwaylim (may Allah preserve him) was asked about
a similar issue, and he replied:

Praise be to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the
Messenger of Allah. To proceed:

The websites mentioned offer commission in return for
checking the ads that they have, and these payments are of two types:

1.    

One type pays you just for checking the ads, without
paying any subscription or fees of any kind. There is nothing wrong with
this type – in sha Allah – so long as the ads do not contain anything that
is prohibited according to Islamic teachings, and they do not include ads
for anything that is haraam  or objectionable.

2.    

Another type that involves paying a non-refundable
subscription fee, in addition to checking the ads, and the amount of
commission paid varies according to the size of the subscription fee. The
greater the subscription fee, the more commission is paid, up to a certain
limit. Part of these fees is used to cover the expenses of the company
running the website, and the rest is distributed in the form of commission
to other subscribers.

It is quite clear that the commission in this type involves
an exchange of cash for cash, so the subscriber pays the fee, and from this
fee others get their commission, and vice versa, and what comes from the
sale of ads and the like is less than the income generated by the
subscriptions. So the income mostly comes from subscriptions and commission
is paid from that income. This type involves the exchange of cash for cash,
along with variation in the amount and delay, let alone the deceit and
ambiguity having to do with the subscriptions. Thus it combines riba and
gambling. Therefore it is best to avoid subscribing and not to get involved
with it.

And Allah knows best. May Allah send blessings and peace upon
our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his family and companions.

End quote from the website Ana al-Muslim:


http://www.almoslim.net/node/57171

For more information, please see the answer to question no.
120136

And Allah knows best.