Burned by a scandal in its offer business over inappropriate promos, Offerpal Media is moving to set standards which forbids offers that are misleading, deceptive or otherwise objectionable.

The action is the first move the company has made since it brought in a new chief executive, George Garrick, a couple of weeks ago. The CEO transition happened in the midst of a debate over scam offers that were allegedly duping users into mobile subscription deals and other purchases that they really didn’t want.

Offers are special ads that are used to monetize otherwise free social games on Facebook and other social networks. In an offer, a user will agree to sign up for a Netflix subscription or credit card offer. The business has been lucrative because the offers guaranteed some kind of direct benefit for the advertisers, who are willing to pay more. And these offers are appealing to gamers who didn’t want to pay for virtual goods with credit cards. Offer companies like Offerpal, Super Rewards, Gambit, Trialpay and others have been at the forefront of the boom in virtual goods, which are expected to generate $1 billion in U.S. revenues in 2009.

But as with other online media, complaints arose that some offers were scams. The scandal ignited last month as Techcrunch editor Michael Arrington challenged former Offerpal CEO Anu Shukla over the legitimacy of most offers at the Virtual Goods Summit. Shukla said that less than 1 percent of the offers have generated complaints from users. But the ensuing debate led to changes in policy regarding offers at Zynga, RockYou, and other companies. Facebook renewed its crackdown on scams and actually stopped one of Zynga’s games, FishVille, from launching until Zynga removed controversial offers. Zynga has also stopped using offers until it can set up a system to properly vet them.

Offerpal says it is the first to offer a set of guidelines for advertisers. It includes a multi-step review process before each offer goes live, and automated processes for continually verifying the current offers. Offerpal will continue to do some things it says it has always done, like personally handling each complaint that comes in. The company says it has remained in close contact with Facebook, MySpace and other social platforms.

Offerpal also says it has added many high-value offers from recognizable brands such as Real Networks, ProFlowers, New York Times, DirecTV, Disney, Yahoo, Blockbuster, Netflix, Priceline, Discover Card, Columbia House, Nielsen, Gevalia and many more.