Can Your Earn Too Much ING Direct Referral Bonus?

And not get yourself in trouble?

Yes and No.

I started to offer ING Direct referral links on this site since April and after I finished my own referrals, I also accepted referrals from others and hosted them here so they can earn some bonuses as well. But to all my knowledge, the maximum bonuses I can earn from ING Direct is $500 ($250 from Orange Savings account and another $250 from Electric Orange Checking account). I believe other ING Direct users have the same limit. Then there was this story on Patriot Ledger last month saying somebody somehow made more profits from ING Direct referral program than anybody else, much much more. Though the result of that was a lawsuit filed by ING, what interested me is this part of the story:

In the suit, ING alleges Breck Yunits created a Web site with an address and domain name “ingdirect25.com” in May, a move that infringed on the corporate name and trademark, the lawsuit said.

Further, through the Web site, ING alleges Breck Yunits referred 918 new customers – far more than the limit of 25, resulting in a profit of $9,180, far in excess of the $250 limit, per the rules of the promotion, the lawsuit said.

I am wondering how that guy did it. That’s a lot of referral bonuses for a single person to earn