You read that right - get 100 Red Mystery Bags in 60 seconds. Or grab 40 Aquariums to max our your Zoo. Or stock up on 30 Bury the Mole items to instantly finish new rounds. Collect 60 Terracotta Tiles and 20 Stone Columns, and upgrade your Italy Village to Level X.
Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus - and it's Christmas every day on Facebook - because every day, you can get dozens and dozens - actually hundreds - of any Free Gift that is available on Mafia Wars. Better yet, you can get items that are not on your Free Gift screen.
What's the catch? NONE. This game-altering technique does not require setting up 16 separate Mafia Wars accounts and sending Free Gifts to yourself. No money changes hands. You don't use your Reward Points. You don't have to watch a video, or get 300 e-mails a day, or sign up for a 
I have one account and - on a lazy day - or on Got your attention now? OK - here's how you do it. There's a new but rapidly growing Facebook Community Group called Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators. If you don't join this group after reading this post, you might as well stop playing Mafia Wars, pop your favorite movie into your VCR BetaMax reel-to-reel projector, and watch it in your cave.
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(January 19 update) - The overwhelming success of the Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators group - which exploded from 500 to 2,500 members in a week - led the administrators to wisely create a second Free Gift group - Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators 2. THAT is the group you should join now - and everything in this article works the same way in Group 2 as it did in the original group.
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The Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators group (and its sequel site, Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators 2) is by far the most impressive MW-related Community page I've seen on Facebook. It has nearly 600 Mafia Wars players as of December 18 - and this blog gets anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000 views per day. So if readers join the Free Gift Links group, the membership will increase into the thousands - and I'll have to change the title of this post to "500 Red Mystery Bags in 60 Seconds" - because that's how many you'll be opening.
Joining the Group...
First, go to the Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators 2 page and click on Join and/or Like. The group is run by several Administrators who will quickly add you to the group.
Once you're in the group, you'll see post after post filled with those Tiny URL links that you've probably seen on your Facebook feed:
I posted the links above on the MW Free Gift Link Creators group this morning. What you don't see in the picture above is that SO DID A HUNDRED OTHER PEOPLE - and I was able to get a Free Gift from each of them.
Once You're in the Group...
You have to do a bit of prep work once you join the MW Free Gift Link Creators group, but it is WELL worth it. Joining the group is step one. The key to getting the most Free Gifts is to add as many of the group's members as friends on Facebook AND - once they've accepted - make sure to add them to your Mafia. Once you start posting links like the ones above, group members will send YOU friend invitations, and you'll increase your ability to collect Free Gifts.
One important rule to remember: you can accept ONE Free Gift from each group member per day (though I think it's more like once per 18 hours). So - in my post above - you cannot go down the list and take all 15 items that I posted (or more than one). You have to choose ONE. But when you have dozens or hundreds of the MW Free Gift Link Creators group members in your Mafia, choosing one Free Gift from each of them will skyrocket your stash of... whatever you want.
When you click on a TinyURL Free Gift Link on the group page, you'll be directed into Mafia Wars, to the familiar screen you've come to recognize:
You should return the favor and send back a Free Gift. Also - the 'Accept More Pending Gifts' button will take you out of Mafia Wars and into the Facebook Game Request screen - they key to the Zynga/Facebook Double Free Gift Trick. (If you're not using this trick, you should also stop playing Mafia Wars, and trade in your computer for a hula hoop).
If click on a Free Gift link within the group and see THIS screen:
It means one of two things:
1. You already accepted a Free Gift from that Mafia member today, and have to wait to get another Free Gift from that person; or
2. The person whose Free Gift link you clicked on is not in your Mafia.
You'll eventually recognize some of the people in your Mafia that you "met" through the Free Gift Link Generators group, but if you're unsure about whether you're friends with a group member who has posted a link you want to click on, simply right click on the person's name, open in a new tab, and see if he or she is a Facebook friend. Remember, you need the person to be in your Mafia to get the Free Gifts from him or her - so once you add friends from the Group, you need to recruit them in Mafia Wars by clicking on MY MAFIA and finding their names in your friend list, and sending an invite.
To Get the MOST Free Gifts Possible...
While you could simply join the Group, friend a bunch of members, and click on Free Gift links (and send the gifts back), you'll do MUCH better when you start posting your own Free Gift links on the group's wall. Your Mafia members will click on YOUR links, will get a Free Gift from you, and - ideally - send it back. (In fact, you can then send the same Free Gift back to that member). So not only can you get a Free Gift from each MW Free Gift Link Creators group member in your Mafia, but those same Mafia members can get one - and send one back - to you.
Be courteous - when you click on a Free Gift link in the group, send the gift back (though some posts will indicate not to bother sending certain gifts back). The protocol is no different than when a Mafia member sends you a Free Gift within the game - you should send one back. It's the right thing to do for your Mafia AND it will get your Mafia members to gift you more frequently, once they identify you as a reliable "gift returner."
I try to post Free Gift links on the group page twice a day - maybe once before work and once before bed. As a bonus, your post will show up in the Facebook feed of your Mafia members who aren't in the MW Free Gift Link Creators group - giving them the chance to get - and send you - Free Gifts as well.
And after you've collected Free Gifts like a glutton on the MW Free Gift Link group page, assuming you've also posted Free Gift links, your Mafia Wars free gift envelope will eventually be bulging with the Free Gifts the group members send back to you.
As your Mafia Wars Free Gift envelope fills up from all the Free Link Gift group members sending you gifts, you can DOUBLE your Free Gift intake by using the Zynga/Facebook Double Free Gift Trick.
The Double Free Gift Trick, combined with active participation in the MW Free Gift Link Creators group, will put your Free Gift intake on steroids. You know the Facebook icon that shows how many Game Requests you have? It maxes out at 100 even if you have over 100 requests/Free Gifts pending (and it keeps those extra requests in storage, so you don't lose them).
Since I joined the MW Free Gift Link Creators Group, I literally have not been able to get my Game Requests number below 100. And Mafia Wars is the only game I play on Facebook (now that the Treasure Isle promo is done) - so these are ALL Free Gifts from MW. I go to the Facebook Games Request page and gorge like an elephant set loose at a peanut buffet.
Also, you can add the Mafia Wars Free Gift Creator group icon to your Facebook home page - the number to the right shows how many new Free Gift Link posts there are since you last looked. When you've added enough of the group members to your Mafia, you'll be able to return again and again to the group to get more Free Gifts - but remember - only one from each member per day.
How Do You Create the TinyURL Links?
Some readers may already be familiar with the Mafia Wars tool called Link-a-Nator. If you're not, don't worry - the MW Free Gift Link Creators page has easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions on how to get and use Link-a-Nator. The bottom line is, you will drag a "bookmarklet" into your web browser's Bookmarks Bar (I use - and recommend - Google Chrome for this).Once you have your Link-a-Nator bookmark, go to Mafia Wars . The program has no use if you're not in Mafia Wars - so don't try to run it from Facebook, or while you're the Free Gift Link Creators Group, or while you're checking out the latest celebrity gossip skin on the Tyler Durden website. You have to be in Mafia Wars to use Link-a-Nator.
Once you are, click on the Link-a-Nator bookmark several times in sequence - first to "unframe" your Mafia Wars page, then to start Link-a-Nator, and then, once you're prompted to bring up your Free Gifts page, you'll see the main Link-a-Nator screen:
Look at these choices! Notice how every Vegas, Italy Village, Private Zoo, Chop Shop, Mystery Bag, Hustlin' Wit Dre, and other Free Gift item is here - plus a Crime Spree link - 32 Free Gifts in all. You check off the ones you want to post in the Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators Group, and click on GENERATE FREE GIFTS at the lower left of the screen.
By the way, compare the 32 Link-a-Nator options above to the 14 options on your Free Gift screen in Mafia Wars (I don't count Game Cards as a Free Gift... since you have to BUY THEM WITH MONEY).
In Mafia Wars, you only have two of the five Zoo upgrade parts to send as Free Gifts; in Link-a-Nator, you can generate links for all 5. And when your 14 Free Gift options in Mafia Wars are reduced with each new social event item (cakes two weeks ago, Dr. Dre items this week), Link-a-Nator keeps all of the Free Gifts available.
When you click the GENERATE FREE GIFT LINKS button at the bottom left of the Link-a-Nator screen, the program will create TinyURL links for each of the Free Gifts you checked off:
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The TinyURL Free Gift links generated by Link-a-Nator |
(Link-a-Nator will also generate two other sets of links that you don't need for these purposes).
You don't have to go to the TinyURL website - Link-a-Nator does that. Once your TinyURL links are generated, you're just two steps from paydirt:
1. Copy all of the TinyURL links at once (think of a cut and paste job, or hit Ctrl-A and Ctrl-C within the Tiny URL Links window).
2. Go to the MW Free Gift Link Creator page, and post your Free Gift links there. I recommend having a separate tab open when you do this, in case you need to go back to your Link-a-Nator page. You can rearrange the TinyURL links into groups and give them headings, like I did in my post, but that's my incurable OCD kicking in optional.
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Someday doctors will find a cure for OCD... |
Which Free Gift Links Should I Post?
The larger the variety of links you post on the MW Free Gift Link Creator page, the more options you give your Mafia, and the more gifts you'll get back. That being said, if you're done with Vegas, you probably don't want to get back a lot of Chefs. On the other hand, even if your Zoo is at Level 10, and your Italy Village is at Level X, you DO want to get more of the upgrades for each - because there were will be new Regions in Italy - and at least one new Property, and there will likely be new levels of the Zoo, just as there were with the Chop Shop and Weapons Depot.
It's your call. I see posts with just Zoo items, from members who just want to build up their Zoo - this way, the only Free Gifts that they can be sent back are Zoo upgrades. Other posts contain more links, with a note on what the members hopes you'll send back, and what he or she doesn't need back.
But Isn't This Cheating?
This is one of the great debates I read about - and consider - with Mafia Wars. Let's be clear on one thing: the Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creator group is a Facebook page. As long as the group is posted on Facebook, participating in the group certainly doesn't violate Facebook's rules, unless you're not posting offensive material... in which case one of the group's Administrators will kick you out long before Facebook's monitors even notice. 
Zynga might have other thoughts (many of which were included in the recent, ominous, revised Terms of Service), but I suspect the company is more than happy to have players racing back and forth between a Facebook page and Mafia Wars, seeing more ads, more promotions for other Zynga games, more opportunities to buy and spend Reward Points, etc. It's certainly better for Zynga than if you just stopped playing Mafia Wars and Zynga's other games.The use of Link-a-Nator - the key to the Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators group - is a more complex question. Link-a-Nator is not a Zynga or Facebook product. It is one of several extremely helpful Facebook tools created by independent programmers (Spokholm, Arun, Code Outpost) who know a LOT more about computers than I do. You may have seen other references in the blog to these tools, which include Chucker, Brawler, Blofield's Item Analyzer, and others.
If you use these, you know how helpful they are for trading, fighting, or finding more Operations in Mafia Wars. If you find these tools helpful, consider donating two or five dollars on these sites - it incentives the programmers to update these code-intensive tools, and enhances your game play. A small donation from the thousands of MW players who use these tools can go a long way.
I know there are Mafia Wars players who think of this as cheating. And I respect that argument. My viewpoint is, playing Mafia Wars with these tools - or the Double Free Gift Trick - or the Private Zoo upgrade links and Terracotta Tiles/Stone Columns links posted on this site - is analogous to putting more RAM into your computer - why not enhance your experience? That's probably why you read this and other blogs.
I recommend you check out the Mafia Wars Free Gift Link Creators group today. With a little work adding group members to your Mafia, and the fairly easy mastery of Link-a-Nator, you WILL be collecting 100 Mystery Bags in 60 seconds.
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