If you maintain the right kind of vigilance, not only will it protect you from costly hacking and a public relations nightmare, it will reward you with higher sales, lower fraud and higher customer satisfaction.

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It can keep you active and involved in a game, reward game play and allow expert players to teach others.

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So just knowing that you and all those homeless children are doing well, it's a reward enough for me.

NPR: The Intersection of Cynicism and Modern Politics

The danger with that is if you do it over and over it becomes an "if-then" reward in "now-that" reward clothing.

WSJ: How to Stay Motivated: Daniel Pink on 'Drive'

You can duck the radar, of course, and buy a Double Whopper with cash, but it'll bring you no reward except swollen ankles.

ENGADGET: IBM wins diet monitoring and reward patent, celebrates with sip of Spirulina

No matter how much you love a stock (and write favorably about it in MarketWatch) it will not reward your loyalty by rising in price.

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And, since each individual point you earn is all but worthless, it can be difficult to tell whether the reward was worth whatever extra spending you may have engaged in to secure it.

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