Sony Ericsson Free Laptop Promotion: A Hoax
A colleague of mine sent a forwarded email saying that Sony Ericsson is giving away a free laptop! All you have to do is to forward the same email to 8 people on your list and you will receive a certain Ericsson T18 laptop. However, if you forward it to 20 people, you will get the Ericsson R320 laptop.
Forwarded emails usually end up in my Trash folder but I couldn’t resist opening this one. It’s too good too be true so I decided to investigate.
I found out that this email hoax has been circulating since 2000. This new hoax email is almost the same as its predecessor except the former matches a deal from its competitor Nokia. Next, there is no such Ericsson T18 or R320 laptops. These are discontinued cellular phone models from Ericsson. And lastly, Ericsson cellphones are now known as Sony Ericsson after a joint venture by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to make mobile phones.
Sony Ericsson finally made a statement to end the email campaign.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:50 am
I just love how all these hoax emails ask recipients to forward them on to x number of people actually fool so many people into doing just that!!
May 13th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Yes. I still don’t get it why email hoaxes abound. It just proves that there are plenty of gullible people out there without doing a little investigation. Thanks for dropping by, Lee!
May 13th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Some of them are cheap marketing scams to trick people to do the marketing for them. It may not be pretty but sometimes it works.
May 13th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
@L
I’m pretty sure thats not the case here – Sony are very quick to inform customers, via their website, of any and all hoaxes and phishing attempts that reference their name.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
[...] from a miskipaps.com who investigated it in more detail. Read what he found after investigation Sony Ericsson Free Laptop Promotion: A Hoax Competition Email Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
June 1st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Even double 07 can be fooled. I actually sent it to 15people. Then I looked it up on the internet and found out it was a fake. Boy do I feel like a fool. I sent another e-mail informing everyone it was a fake and not to open up any e-mails. My junk e-mails go to my spam folder and if I don’t recognize the name I delete it.
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:41 am
Double 07 and AgentM were hoaxed! At least you have the initiative to look it up and send a memo to your friends that it’s just a hoax. Emails like these that are too good to be true are just plain hoax unless proven otherwise.
Thanks for dropping by 007!
July 26th, 2009 at 5:40 am
i just want a free laptop
July 26th, 2009 at 5:41 am
i want a free laptop
October 12th, 2009 at 4:37 am
This email has evolved into a new version today – now it is offering a ‘free Sony Vaio laptop’.
This one also comes with a nice graphical version.
October 12th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
This is not even a competent hoax! What marketing company would ever begin a promotional piece with “Dear All”?!?!?!?
Anyone with even a little bit of initiative would have taken the time to look up the specs on the laptops they were giving away, and when they did, they would have found out that they are not laptop models, but cell phone models — and DISCONTINUED MODELS AT THAT!!!
If anyone was taken in by this, they should simply sell the computers that they already own because they are obviously too gullible to be allowed NEAR the internet. As the great circus huckster P. T. Barnum once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”! OMG was he RIGHT!!!
October 14th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Really? I can’t wait to receive that one.
Thanks for dropping by Lee.
October 14th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I agree, yet plenty of us are still gullible with these email hoaxes.
Thanks for dropping by Skip
November 24th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Merci vielmals, danke
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Well, I learned some things from your website. You have an attention-grabbing writing style. I added your web site to my favorites therefore I will come back and visit you again.