I applied through a website and spoke to a recruiter over the phone. She seemed nice and sent me an exam which I had to complete within a certain number of days. Now usually, I have ethical reservations about doing such exams online because I can't see the person and I'm basically placing my trust in them that they won't steal my work. But the exam consisted of making banners and evaluating the click rate of certain flash banners and why they did well. I tried my best in completing the exercises and sent them off in a timely enough manner. This time, I also added some watermarks to my designs. The recruiter got back to me and told me she would send it off to the team and we left off on that note.
Well about a week or so goes by and many interviews later, I'm working somewhere when I receive an email in my inbox from the recruiter. It reads something to the effect of "Well we really love your attitude and I want to present you in the best light, so could you redo these banners? I'm going to send you a new document..." And she sends me an even longer exam, only this time with specifications for making the banners in 3 different sizes and variations, more questions, etc etc. At this point, I had the impression that she was trying to play me for a chump and get free work out of it.
I basically said "No thanks" and went about my way. It wasn't until I came across the negative reviews on this glassdoor profile and the ripoff report that everything started to click.