[kevincox]

Exactly, if you divide the pot per-user then a scammer who opens an account can only make their own money back (minus amazon's cut) making a scam like this a non-starter.

Next they can try to trick legitimate readers, which was mentioned in the article. But that can be mitigated by actually counting pages read. Because tricking a legitimate reader is click through pages of garbage is going to be a hard sell.

Next you have to worry about account hijacking but that's a whole different kettle of fish.