There is much hoohah online about if this is a scam or not. I myself believe it is legit. I just do not have any way to try it out. So, would anyone like to test if this thing is real or not? I have developed a method which is safe, secure, and will not spam your email adress.
[ol]
[li]Create a new email adress using www.yahoo.com[/li][li]Post what the email adress is and I will send you a referal (You MUST use this adress from here out wherever asked for it)[/li][li]Choose eBay (or one of the others but I am not sure about them) and then sign up for a new ebay account. MAKE SURE TO USE THE EMAIL ADRESS YOU CREATED ABOVE. Yes, you will have to have credit card information but it is for ebay.[/li][li]Bid on something. The key here is that you do not have to buy it. So, bid on a newly listed car that has starting prices of one dollar. It almost certainly will have more bids. Something like that.[/li][/ol]
If this actually works and I am able to get a free iPod we can make a ring and help as many people as possible get one. If this is a scam or fraud then we will not be out anything. Also, this is not illegal. Just a loop hole.
Alright, I guess I did not make myself clear. It has nothing to do with any of those. Did you click on the site? Anyways, Engadget | Technology News & Reviews . Once again, I want to try this out for myself I just need some help with some other volunteers. It would be risk free unless someone can point out other wise.
From your second link. (which, by the way, doesn’t help your case really…)
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t fit my definition of ‘free’ at all.
And it doesn’t just require an email address, they also require a valid mailing address, which means you’re going to get snail-mail spam, as well as an inbox full of garbage. Their privacy policy states that while they won’t send you any unsolicited mail, their business partners are free to do just that.
This is a MLM scam, pure and simple. The company might not ask for money up front, but according to your second link again…
they get money from the sponsors that you are required to buy something from in order to be eligible.
These people prey on the ignorant and the uninformed.
1)“To get it to work you actually have to sign up for one of their sponsors’ offers (like the Columbia House DVD club, the GM credit card, AOL for Broadband, etc.) and also get five other people to also take them up on one of their offers.”
Yea, ebay. I already explained that in the OP.
I do not know what difference you are trying to stress between “valid mailing adress” and “email adress” but if you were to follow the OP the email adresses would work. They would be essentialy junk, throw away email adresses for just this reason.
From my link: “The company rep we spoke to insisted that this thing was for real and that they had already given away about 400 iPods to people.”
Look, I am not saying that it works nessecarily, I am just suggesting a way to try it out that would be risk free. Put all the myth to rest. I would normally just outright call it a scam but there are so many people online (not testimonials from that site but rather well respected forums) who claim to have gotten a free iPod and if it really is possible then why not? If you have the possibility of recieving something for free by doing something that is essentialy risk free then why not?
Find a cite of someone that was royally screwed over using my exact method and we will put this claim away once and for all. Untill then, unless you can think of a better way then I have stated, don’t be so quick to judge.
I’m always quick to judge anything where you supposedly get something for nothing. In this case, I don’t think it’s an out-and-out fraud, but I do believe that very few people will actually get iPods. From their Terms and Conditions:
So, they won’t automatically give you credit for stuff you do, sometimes they’ll send you an email, which you then have to return to them (and make sure you do it right), and the reserve the right to refuse credits or offers at any time, for any reason.
It’s a grey area - using this offer, they can harvest a lot of emails, get a lot of working snail-mail addresses, AND get refferal bonuses from Columbia House, etc. In return, some people will get iPods. As long as they keep getting enough money from referrals to keep shipping iPods, they will. If people get smart and always get their 5 referrals, they may start rejecting credits.
The only way that it will work for you is if you get 5 other people to go through the hassel of signing up for something and giving you the referral, and expecting nothing in return. Otherwise each person has to get 5 more people … No thanks.
iPods go for what, $300? If it does happen and I would get a free iPod then how about I sell it on ebay and split the money accordingly? Yea, I doubt it will work. I have seen that a lot where some one will say “My friend did not get one for some mysterious reason but I did!” But who knows? $60 bucks…
Let me get this right… You have a hard time differentiating between your email address and your home address?
Let me clue you in here, they want your home mailing address in addition to you email address. Where ever it is that the mailman visits you every day. The second page after you login requests your name and physical address.
So what? From that exact same paragraph… (bolding mine)
I’m not debating the fact they they are giving out free iPods.
They are just getting a lot more in return in the way of valid home and email addresses which they will then bury under a ton of junk mail.
Can I ask you why you’re so…well, rabid about this?
It seems to me that you want very badly to believe in Santa Claus, and really don’t want to hear that the long-term cost may outweigh the short-term payoff.
I don’t have a horse in this race. I am, however, inclined to believe that getting something for nothing from an online source is unlikely.
If it’ll make you sleep better at night, you could always call the Better Business Bureau about them. Something inside tells me that they’ll have at least one complaint on file.
Yea, do not ask me. When my friend presented this to me I just laughed at him. I am not so sure why I stopped laughing… but I did. Sorry for seeming to be rabid; in real life I honestly do not care. I think some how I have the ability to over-passionize when I write. Talent or annoyance, I do not know. I just really like free stuff and rebates in general. I am almost always the skeptic but whenever you present to me a situation where your risks are getting snail mail spam and the benefits are a possibility of $300 dollars, even with no gaurentees, I will try to think of a way to get the money. Juvenile, stupid, immature, or whatever, just something I was wanting to try.
Atleast we fought some ignorance today, eh?
I checked out the engadget website, and found a long line of people who are
rightly skeptical
proud that they have found a way to put one over on the free iPod people by signing up for offers using temp e-mail addresses then cancelling after they get credit, and
upset that people are encroaching on “their” territory by starting their own sign-up groups.
Lets say that, just for shits and grins, you try to acquire the iPod honestly. You sign up for a credit card, book club or AOL, and convince five of your friends that this is a great way to get an iPod, and they all sign up for one of these offers. Of course, all five of your friends will have to convince five people each to take on an extra credit card or book club for the purposes of eventually getting the free iPod, bringing the total number of people getting the iPod to six, and the total number of people involved so far to 31. At the next level, 156 people are involved, and the next…well you get the general idea. Now, try to imagine how fast this little plan collapses when a large number of these people are eliminated from the free iPod plan for various contractual reasons, and try to imagine what your reputation will look like when a whole lot of people have signed up for AOL or the book of the month club on your recommendation.
Now, how much is a free iPod worth to you?
