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Sony Ericsson T18 Laptop for Free?

15 May 2009
There’s no such thing – just an old chain letter hoax!

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:

 

Sony Ericsson Hoax

 

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.




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By Razvan Livintz
Balancing the keen and until late in night reading, with Internet "addiction", the genuine zeal for my bright and fervid students with the craze for the latest discoveries in science and technology, I also enjoy taking not very usual ...

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Comments:

OMG said on May-22-2009 14:12

WTF? i will not receive my laptop??? WHYYYY!!!??? ))

ramkumar said on May-24-2009 07:38

Excellent work. I love it...

suresh babu b said on May-24-2009 17:20

it is good product from good company with advance technology.

Rajkumar said on May-25-2009 09:11

i want this laptop configuration and i want a laptop

primož said on May-25-2009 14:53

Thanks if it"s true. i"ll send it to 20 friends by email. best regards.

chaing sovanndaravuth said on May-26-2009 02:29

I want to have a free laptop from SonyEricsson company

Neo Salacup said on May-26-2009 03:32

From the start, i knew this is a HOAX email because the first thing that came to my mind is that when was the Sony Ericsson start manufacturing LAPTOPS. i knew they only manufactured cellular phones.

This article should be a FYI who received this kind of email just like me. Be vigilant nowadays and be more concious. Thanks Ransvan for this FYI..

Frances Flynn said on May-26-2009 16:24

I have sent it to 18 ppl will i get a free laptop t18. and i have added anna.swelung@ericsson.com within that email. please email me and let me know!

julian gittens said on May-28-2009 13:17

its really great

dipanjan debnath said on May-28-2009 15:22

i have sent it to more than 20 people,

perskepit said on May-30-2009 06:53

I received mine the next day, whats the problem?
.......
And then I woke up

Leon said on Jun-1-2009 14:13

this sounds very tempting though...

ss said on Jun-1-2009 19:08

Figured as much...that it was a hoax...What's that old saying, "If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is" Anyway how would they know who to send the laptops to just by forwarding it to 8 of your friends. And to give away this many laptops...great thing to do if you want to go bankrupt in a hurry....come on ppl...don't be so gullable.

mubeen haider said on Jun-2-2009 10:13

there is no any promotion acctivity from sony or ericsson as u read "Razvan Livintz" tel us. i advise my friends firstly conferm these mails from related company /organization. thanks

james heaton said on Jun-3-2009 09:41

All you idiots asking if you will get a free laptop, read the god damn article again! IT IS A HOAX!! Can you not read???

eva said on Jun-3-2009 14:16

can i get free laptop?

Dave F said on Jun-3-2009 22:46

What concerns me (as a recipient of the email) is whether I will now be bombarded with even more junk and SPAM ???

mirela said on Jun-10-2009 11:51

OMG I can't believe there are people how think this crap is real...

Chode said on Jun-10-2009 23:09

All this talk about a free laptop is bullshit!

BALAKRAFAS SAMIRA said on Jun-19-2009 08:10

when and how i'll receive my laptop?

mahi said on Jun-25-2009 07:03

i cant believe that it's true! how can i receive laptop?

shalender kumar said on Jun-26-2009 11:12

i have forwared this promotional mail more than 20 peoples wit cc to anna kindly confirm when i am receiving my laptop

waqas akram said on Jun-26-2009 21:51

any body give me a laptop please. i will very thankfull for this act of kindness.

Leonardo said on Jun-27-2009 03:18

Good Work Man!

Andrei said on Jul-3-2009 07:02

i want this laptop

kannan said on Jul-9-2009 07:16

Can i know wat is the cost of this lap? and needed full details of this

Aline bilodeau said on Jul-9-2009 14:16

bonjour je suis intéresser a recevoir gratuitement le labtop pour vous encouragez et prémouvoir se produit a des amis, fait moi parvenir le formulaire et je vous envoye aussi d autre adresse email aussi,MERCI.
bien a vous SIGNER: Madame ALINE BILODEAU

lena veronica said on Jul-9-2009 17:21

i like one this

AL STONE said on Jul-14-2009 17:56

IF IT'S SOMETHING FOR FREE IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

ricardo torres said on Jul-21-2009 00:06

esta promocion a que tipo de paises aplica, porque yo soy latino, existe alguna restriccion al respecto, por otra parte quiero saber si cada laptop se envia configurada y con todas las licencias y quien cubre los gastos de envio, responderme, gracias.

Guest said on Jul-23-2009 06:21

I received mine in the mail today, great laptop

Syed Shakeer said on Jul-23-2009 16:43

It's joke from Sony Ericson Co..

Marta said on Aug-12-2009 16:17

hi! I'm from Spain, and i have this e-mail, but the dates are diferent, i called the number and it's false! Free computers...no no...Thank's

murali said on Aug-16-2009 15:39

IF IT'S SOMETHING FOR FREE IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

G.SURESH said on Aug-21-2009 14:24

Dear Sir,

Yesterday i have forwraded this message 20 ppls. but still i didnt receive any message from you. and i have copied to anna.swelung@ericssion.com.

awaiting for your reply

G.Suresh
Tirupur
South India

Jai said on Sep-4-2009 17:48

I like this....

Mehdi said on Sep-5-2009 06:21

Dear G.Suresh from India

you have to wait till doom's day to get your free laptop!!

nikhil said on Sep-6-2009 09:03

i love soni ericssion and i wold like to win a sony ericssion lap top ...

DjZZ said on Sep-24-2009 04:59

hope itssss true n i love sony ericsson i'm a fan of there phones....so now what about there laptops...toooo coooool...

el nene said on Oct-12-2009 17:46

alllllll this is fake and all those are phone not computer

Satan said on Oct-14-2009 15:58

EVERYBODY: Please stop trying to get a free laptop, you're wasting your time.

I sent 432,897,529,865 emails and I have taken all the free laptops that Sony was giving away.

You were too late.

-Satan

Guest said on Oct-14-2009 16:53

anyone received the laptop?

Gibsongs Productions said on Oct-19-2009 02:50

I tried it...did not work :(

M.Vleeshouwers said on Oct-20-2009 17:00

Sony Ericsson T18 or R320 why not

Guest said on Oct-24-2009 22:12

i have sended 20 massages to my people ?
than i can have this laptop ?
:)

VINAYAK said on Oct-25-2009 04:32

SEND ME LAPTOP

KarenFB said on Oct-25-2009 09:58

As lot of the above messages...i hope that this is true cause I love SEricsson, and my PC just let me down, snif snif snif..I really need this! Thanks in advance.
00 25 f4

devilgame said on Oct-28-2009 10:51

then.... if its true can you send me one..? cos, i was sick of using pc...

nicole said on Oct-28-2009 11:30

IS THIS TRUE OR A HOAX.....

Guest said on Nov-2-2009 12:23

i want to buy this laptop bt where i can it?

sapphyre said on Nov-3-2009 05:56

Hoax or not? I am confused after reading the messages here some say it is a hoax, then others say how great the product, so which is it, real or a hoax?

Foghorn said on Nov-6-2009 11:40

is the woman at ericssons really ANNAS WEL UNG is she a lady boy

Manni said on Nov-16-2009 10:08

Shows how often we dont think before we act

luke said on Nov-17-2009 21:21

i got my laptop from this. it is a bit small though... and for some reason, it only has 9 number keys and a 2 inch screen.

it must be the future of portable computing.. sweet.

Guest said on Nov-24-2009 16:31

too good to be true! this is ending up to be a great year!

milagros pinto said on Nov-27-2009 05:05

my friend forwarded me this chain mail from ericson cause my friend knew that i need badly for my daugther so she could use for school stuff....hope that i can receive one from you guys as a gift since christmas is coming....thanks and more power..

Marvin said on Jan-21-2010 10:40

This is not real people is a HOAX!
There's no such thing as FREE in this world.

Virendra Kumar said on Feb-22-2010 04:46

I read this mail and I want my labtop.

pawan said on May-29-2010 04:53

i want to buy this laptop bt where i can it?

RAJESH said on Jun-5-2010 12:08

i want to this laptop but where i can it?

Ahmad said on Jun-6-2010 04:18

Dear All,

almost people in my range has forwarded this message to many people in thier range since long back but no one got any news for free laptop receive. as i can say its a great mind and idea to collect email address for thier business by making people fool. Please stop all these sending or forarding mails to friends and dears becouse we are all giving a lot business by sending mails to 20-30 and more peoples.
Irs all fake

sendil said on Jun-23-2010 03:50

Get your laptop in shop

itsik said on Jul-6-2010 19:25

i need this laptop and i send to all my friends more in 40 pepole. please dens it to my. tank's alot.

devendra said on Jul-21-2010 13:05

unbelievebel ??? SONY ERICSSON T18 LAPTOP FREE ??? i need a laptop . I also patisepeted lMCA Laptop BARISH offer for COCACOLA But not win a laptop . sory ! unabel to write corect english.

vinay sharma said on Jul-30-2010 15:02

Dear Sir,

Yesterday i have forwraded this message 20 ppls. but still i didnt receive any message from you. and i have copied to anna.swelung@ericssion.com.

awaiting for your reply


Vinay Sharma

+9958080762

umer said on Aug-1-2010 12:49

I am much interested

naseer said on Aug-5-2010 05:46

This is a good idea for publicity.You are doing a great job by giving[helping]free laptops.I need it ,please give it to me.thank you.

mohamed aflal said on Aug-9-2010 10:54

Dear,sir

I am Aflal. I am now 17 years old. I am from Sri Lanka. now I am studying the computer graphic design course. and I need a lot of practice. I have a expert computer knowledge. so than that I haven't computer at my home. now doing work from my friend's computer. and all day I can't practice in my friend's computer. I haven't enough money to buy the computer or laptop. because, my father is doing gardening work at one of the home in our country. so we can't complete our extra own works. and we need expert from others help to learn something or doing something. I need a my own computer to practice and learn. I asked some people to help me from internet but their didn't become to help me. that's why I am asking with u to help me. please.. can u send me a mini laptop from me ?
that's is very big help for me because, it's my knowledge and future job. because, we are poor. if I have my own computer I can improve my knowledge. if u send new or used one or it's no problem.
pls don't forget or let me. I am believing u.
may god bless u.
if u like to send me a laptop this is my address:
NO: 92, s.m road, dharga town, kalutara,
western province
post code : 12090
SRI LANKA

comet said on Aug-10-2010 09:39

hi. thanks foe sharing. nice post

chathusha weerakoon said on Aug-28-2010 10:53

Dear sir,


my ambition is to become an computer engineer. so sir im in search of an laptop.

thankyou!

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