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.