Trade friends for cash?

Not literally, but at www.catch27.com you can earn money for the most friends acquired

By ERIKA LINDQUIST

Want to win $5,000 for a rockin’ party and $5,000 for a charity without even having to move from your chair? All you have to do is “trade your friends” on catch27.com with other college students and campus organizations.

“College kids can hook up and send bags of cash to their favorite charity,” said Lindsey Johnson, director of campus public relations for the Web site.

The goal is to create the largest pack of friends on the site and then trade some of those friends for cooler/hotter/funnier ones.

It’s wicked. It’s heartless. And fans describe it as the anti-facebook.com. It’s a social networking Web site that spoofs other sites like www.myspace.com and www.friendster.com.

There are factors that contribute to the number of points a player can earn to increase the worth of his or her own playing card and increase the chances of winning the game. Points can be given based on looks, personality, number of hot people in your pack, number of invitations you send, number of page viewers you’re getting and the number of people buying and trading you.

To get double points, match 27 player cards with the same theme, like 27 blondes with blue eyes or 27 people drinking out of Starbucks cups.

“Anybody can join — you, your mom and your grandma can make a team,” Johnson said. Freedom of expression with language and showing a little bit of skin is allowed, as long as the site stays pornography free, she said.

Once you register and fill out your profile, you become a trading card and can be traded by other people. Once you have 27 player cards that match a theme, turn them in for a chance to win the cash prize.
“One team made a pack of 27 people raising their middle finger at the camera,” said E. Jean Carroll, creator of www.catch27.com.

Carroll is also co-founder of www.greatboyfriends.com, a popular Internet dating site, where women recommend their ex-boyfriends to each other.

The contest begins April 4 and it all takes place online at www.catch27.com.

The individual or organization accumulating the largest number of points by the deadline — April 30 — wins the $10,000.