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Sony Ericsson T18 Laptop for Free?

Inboxes around the world got hit these days with a new sequel of the (in)famous Sony Ericsson gadget hoax.

The unsolicited message, usually arriving as a part of a chain letter from unaware (but, probably, with good intentions) friends or colleagues, holds a graphic piece displaying the company logo, two laptop images and a text that invites the recipients to participate in a "brand promotion" campaign, as you can see below:

In fact, this is the revival of an (at least) two years old hoax that promised "computer laptops" in exchange of disseminating a similar message, that relied on a behavioral vector such as greed as part of social engineering strategy.

The most striking inadvertences that appear in the message are associated with the laptop brand and models.

First, Ericsson is a Swedish telecommunication company, which does not produce laptops (but phones and cells). Its partner from the joint venture established in 2001, Sony, is the company that manufactures laptops.

Second, T18 and R320 are not laptop models, but discontinued cell phones - the ancestors of our contemporary ultra portable mobiles, introduced about a decade ago.

Last, Sony Ericsson came up earlier this week with a press release, which confirms that the alleged competition is a fraud and the contact name, e-mail address and the signer of the announcement are just pure inventions.