Netlore Archive: Email chain letter claims phone manufacturer Ericsson will give away free laptop computers to those who forward the message to at least eight people
Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: Feb. 2007 (this version)
Status: False
Analysis: See below
Email example contributed by Yvonne H., 27 February 2007:
Fwd: FREE Laptops!...The Ericsson Company is distributing free computer Lap-tops in an attempt to match Nokia that has already done so. Ericsson hopes to increase its popularity this way. For this reason, they are giving away the new WAP laptops. All you need to do to qualify is to send this mail to 8 people you know. Within 2 weeks, you will receive EricssonT18. But if you can send it to 20 people or more, you will receive Ericsson R320.
Make sure to send a copy to: anna.swelung@ericsson.com
Comments: Here's a chain letter that doesn't even make sense on the face of it.
"The Ericsson Company is distributing free computer laptops in an attempt to match Nokia that has already done so."
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but Nokia has never distributed free laptop computers to email forwarders. Nor are they ever likely to do so.
"All you need to do to qualify is to send this mail to 8 people you know. Within 2 weeks, you will receive Ericsson T18."
Sounds easy and tempting enough, but the Ericsson T18 is a cell phone, not a computer. Moreover, it's a discontinued model.
"But if you can send it to 20 people or more, you will receive Ericsson R320."
Again, a cell phone, not a computer. And discontinued, to boot.
What gives? The above text is slightly revised version of a 7-year-old hoax promising free phones to email forwarders. Though the phrase "computer laptops" has been inserted to reel in more suckers, the anonymous prankster who revised the message didn't even bother to change the names of the "free" items. The email address to which copies of the forwarded message are to be sent, anna.swelung@ericsson.com, is a corruption of the one given in the original (anna.swelund@ericsson.com), which was never valid in the first place.
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Sources and further reading:
'Free Phone' Email Hoax
Sony Ericsson official siteEricsson FAQ
Sony Ericsson official siteThousands Bite on 'Free Phone' Hoaxes
Netlore Archive, 10 April 2000
Last updated: 02/27/07
