Last year I wrote about an extremely well distributed email hoax that was supposedly offering forwarders of the message a free laptop from Ericsson.
Now, the email is back in an enhanced and graphical format -
Or, alternatively, you may receive the text based version which is much like previous renditions -
Dear All,
Ericsson are distributing free laptops for their brand promotion. They are hoping to increase their popularity and sales with this campaign.
All you need to do is send an email about this promotion to 8 people and you will receive an Ericsson T18 laptop.
However, if you send an email to 20 people or more you will receive an Ericsson R320 laptop.
Kindly ensure that you cc to Anna at Ericsson so that she will know you have sent the email.
Make sure you copy Anna@Ericsson.co.uk to your emails.
There are several indications that both of these emails are just as much a hoax as the previous version.
Firstly, the email address hasn’t changed and still says it is from an Anna Swelung who, last time I checked, does not even work for Ericsson.
Secondly, if you search for the T18 or R320 you will find that they are not so much laptops as cell phones!
Lastly, the fact that the message asks you to forward it onto your friends like a chain letter should be a red flag as this is a very common component of email hoaxes.
Update : A newer version of this hoax email now claims you can get a free Sony Vaio laptop by forwarding a similar message to 20 people.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
We were just included in this email addr ess gathering scheme.
Is the address- ericsson.com/ca/hoax.shtml – the proper place to report this fraud to Sony Ericsson?
wtf. My friend just fell for this hoax. He CC’ed 20+ people including me to that spammer’s email address.
Ooops! Though we don’t know that this is being used to harvest email addresses – its possible but its just someone’s guess.
oh my God what a hoax but why these people spread these hoax news?
I don’t know why specifically this one has been spread but hoaxes are distributed for a number of reasons -
some people find them funny
other just believe them
spammers use them to collect email addresses.
haha. look at those extremely old and ancient phones on my blog. no one wants them, even the third world countries wont want it.
URL: http://yeoterence.com/2009/05/16/the-sony-ericsson-free-laptop-hoaxscam
Lol, thats true. I’ve never owned either of those models but they look similar to the sort of cell phone I had maybe 10 years ago!
wow, how dumb did I got….
I received this e-mail, and I’m felling like an idiot
Why? Did you forward it on Dani?
I thought this is one brilliant method of harvesting e-mail addresses. You send to 20 peoples email address and send a copy to anna.swelung@ericsson – they must have billions of confirmed e-mail addresses by now.
And of course the original sender has proven they are suckers!
Be prepared for a lot more spam messages people, your friends have dobbed you in…
Get a free laptop my sending an e-mail – how dumb can you get!!!
Nice idea in theory but the Anna Swelung email address would lead back to Ericsson who are not a company that would be harvesting email addresses methinks!
If sony ericsson has a strong domain name authentication and this email never comes back saying there is no such address. How is it still working because this a case of domain name fraud. Can someone tell me is it possible for this to happen again after repeated scams?
I’m not quite sure of what you mean from the way you worded that?
does Ericsson make laptops??? never heard of it anyway… funny, naive people…
)
I don’t think that they do Annabelle Lee and, yes, you’re right – people who believe these hoaxes are naive!
Don’t try to sound smart. People who are hoaxed do NOT “believe these HOAXES” – they believe the INFORMATION they receive.
But surely if the information you receive sounds too good to be true you should check its validity before passing it on?
Heres the official word from Ericsson : http://www.ericsson.com/ca/hoax.shtml
That pretty well sums things up!
scams/chain emails sucks! i hate receiving one of these. it also floods my inbox.
If you’re anything like me you probably receive dozens per day!
The T18 and R320 are not only cell phones they are also discontinued.
That they are. They’re quite old models I believe.
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