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Free, Free, Free Stuff
By Bloggaman | June 11, 2008
Have you ever seen an ad that wants you to click there to receive some free merchandise? Whether it be a free Xbox 360, Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, plane tickets, hotel rooms or anything else you can think of. I have seen them before and in fact I know a guy that used a site like this to get a free Xbox 360 so I know it has worked for at least one person. I have even tried it myself but been very careful when I did it. I wasn’t sure what could happen but I never wanted to give all my information. I now know why.
My wife saw an ad for free plane tickets. I knew this could be a problem but I let her proceed with it. I should have told her what I already knew, not to use all of your private information.
She went through the forms and what seemed like a never ending list of offers. She was at it for what seemed like two hours. Little did I know that she had finished one and come across another offer which she tried also. Well since that time we have had non-stop phone calls from people all over the US, and possibly outside of it as well. My wife’s email spam filter (she uses Gmail) has gone from about 30 a day to about 500 a day.
The spam I can deal with but the phone calls I can’t. We are doing what we can to tell each caller to remove 
us from their list but I am not sure that will get us anywhere. This is what I thought could happen so it is partly my fault for not telling my wife what to give them and what not to give them.
Anymore I am not worried about giving someone my address. We all get junk mail but junk mail does cost money and many people won’t spend the money knowing it won’t likely bring anything in return. Email is free and anyone can send out emails and it won’t cost them a dime. Phone calls aren’t much either and since your chances are good that you will get to talk to someone this is their best way to get to you.
This is something we will have to deal with and it was our own fault. I am here to tell you though to be careful. If they want your private information I recommend a fake phone number and a secondary email address. I always keep one handy that I use for things like this. I keep my normal email for things I know I can trust and use the secondary for anything that could cause me to receive a lot of spam. It has worked well for me but I am paying the price for not telling my wife the same thing.
Here is a Terms & Conditions from one of these sites. As you can see it clearly states a purchase may be necessary. Doesn’t this mean the item isn’t free? If you decide to go forward with this do so your own risk. Notice that it says that your information will be shared with their marketing partners. This is where the non-stop phone calls come from.
*This promotion is conducted exclusively by ———— and is subject to participation terms and conditions. Receipt of your item requires compliance with offer terms, including: age and residency requirements; registration with valid e-mail address, shipping address and phone number; and completion of a user survey and sponsor offers. Purchase may be required. Upon completion of all requirements, we will ship your item to your verified shipping address. Fulfillment may be delayed based on availability. Your information will be shared with our marketing partners; Please read our Privacy Policy for more details. Void where prohibited.
Like I said early on in this article. You can get free things but it isn’t easy and there is sometimes a cost involved. You don’t really expect a list where you put your name and address down and they just send you free items? You have to ask yourself the question before you start signing up, is this too good to be true? Usually it is but good luck if you try it. You might get something for your trouble. I just hope it isn’t the kind of trouble we found.
Topics: General |
