Get A Free Laptop - Are These Advertisements For Real?
PLEASE NOTE - I DO NOT SEND FREE LAPTOPS - THIS STORY WAS FOR INFORMATION ONLY
We have all seen the advertisements. Either on the Internet or in our email inbox as spam. FREE LAPTOPS! Are these ads for real? Kind of. Let me explain.
I went and took a look at a advertisement from laptopreportcard.com just to see what they had to offer and what was required to get a new laptop into a user’s hands. The first thing that struck me about the site was that it was not cluttered with pop up ads and was very professional looking. The first step in claiming your freebie is to enter in your ZIP code. Wow, lucky me, I was eligible to participate. In fact, I entered in 15 different ZIP codes from either former addresses where I lived or for relatives and we all qualified! This was looking good already.
At the next page I was required to input some general information, name, address, phone number, and email addy but this was where it got a little dicey. After completing the first form, I had to take a survey. I selected the option for a free phone & mp3 player. At the next page I was then asked for my social security number. No problem. I put one in. [Not a real one - I used 123-45-6789 which was accepted.] And then came the promos.
In order to qualify, I had to accept some wonderful products and either had to pay for s&h, or a small fee, all of which required a valid credit card number in order to proceed. This was where I stopped. In reading the small print, and I mean small print, just because I signed up for these special offers, in no way was I guaranteed a free laptop. The chosen few are selected randomly after going through all the bells and whistles, plus, I am sure, signing up for every spammer in the world to bombard their mailboxes full of junk.
Is that the case? You bet. After using a throwaway email address, I checked the inbox and within one hour I had already received 26 more free offers, even for products I specifically asked not to be bothered with like paying off college loans and so forth. And I hadn’t even finished the survey! The email address was enough to set off the barrage of spam.
Bottom line - I’m sure someone, somewhere, at some time has received a free laptop. But the high price you may have to pay is giving up your personal and credit card information to a company, though it may be honest, is not something I am willing to do nor would I recommend to others.
Enough said. Be careful.
WE DO NOT SEND FREE LAPTOPS! SORRY!
Giving up your social? No way. Who knows who’s taking it for identity theft. Hell, I’ll put in my ex-wife’s.