Don't Click Here For A Free iPod

fermion writes "Do you wonder what all those free iPods links are about? Do you wonder why apparently rational Slashdot users would use their .sig line to push an offer that seems little more than a thinly veiled pyramid scheme? Answers to these questions can be found in this NYT article (personal information, with no free iPod, is required). The plan itself seems simple. Rat out your friends to advertisers, and get a free gadget. The firm in question, Gratis, Inc, gets a bounty on each customer. The firm claims to have a revenue of $15 million in 2004. They claim to give away 500 iPods a week. If, as the article claims, each contact earns a bounty of around $50, we might presume that 1 in 12 contacts get a free iPod. This firm seem fairly upfront. Another firm mentioned in the article, Consumer Research Corporation, seems much less so. As always, read the fine print."

Comments

Where this thread is going:

[AtillaTheKilla]

I can easily see this thread degenerating in to hundreds of 'rational' slahdotters begging for refs. We'll see...

while we're at it...

[confusion]

If you send this email to 10 of your friends, Bill Gates will send you $100. Er send you to Disney world, or refinance your mortgage or something.

Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/

Re:while we're at it...

[Saeger]

The amount of money Bill Gates was giving away was actually $1000, not a piddly $100 cnote. You obviously never got paid and are just jealous of the millions who did.

Question

[suso]

Do you wonder what all those free iPods links are about?

No, not really.

Can these guys be jobbed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe there's a way to set up an automated way of "creating" email accounts and referrals?

Re:Read this carefully

[Anonymous Coward]

Is the real article this badly formatted?

You are an idiot. You can't even karma whore on Slashdot properly.

Ed McMahon

[haffi]

You may have won 1,000,000 dollars.

sound familiar?

-haffi

Re:Because it actually works...

[Saeger]

After I had gotten two iPods, the MBE account, AOL, temp hotmail address and Visa cards were cancelled.

Well, thanks for scamming the scammers, scammer. Hopefully "Gratis, Inc." will go out of business as fast as AllAdvantage did a few years ago. If anyone remembers them. :)

"If anyone here is in marketing or advertising... KILL yourself. No joke here, really, seriously, kill yourself, you are no rationalization for what you do, you are Satan's little helpers. Kill yourself. Kill yourself. Kill yourself, now. Now! Back to the show! ... Seriously, I know all the marketing people are gonna be like, "There's gonna be a joke coming up!" There's no fucking joke: suck a tailpipe, hang yourself, borrow a pistol from an NRA buddy, do something to rid the world of your evil fucking presence. OK, back to the show. ... You know what bugs me though, that everyone here who's in marketing is now thinking the same thing: "Oh, cool, Bill's going for that Anti-Marketing dollar. That's a huge market!" Quit it! Don't turn everything into a dollar sign, please! ..."Oohh, the plea for sanity dollar. Huge! Huge market! Look at our research."

If anyone

[staeiou]

I swear, those people with the free iPod links will be FIRST up against the wall when the revolution comes.

Re:If anyone

[Hopelessness]

Curiously enough, an edition of the NYT that fell through a time warp from 1000 years in the future defined 'those people' as a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first up against the wall when the revolution came.

Re:I will remember to mod down those suckers

[MXK]

Say what you want, but Free XXX is always good. Unless you're... well, you know...

Wrong site?

[System.out.println()]

Do you wonder why apparently rational Slashdot users ....

What slashdot have you been reading, exactly?

Re:I will remember to mod down those suckers

[kesuki]

Just for you I have a new sig!

Re:it's a scam

[Anonymous Coward]

I got one too and I hardly even get a drop of spam!

Ditto!

[AvantLegion]

I totally hate that free iPod crap.

Re:Read this carefully

[TedCheshireAcad]

That's why I trade supermarket "coupon" cards whenever I get a chance. It is better than avoiding the cards because trading has the potential to poison the data collection.

yeah you must really be psyching those evil supermarket dudes out!

having trouble guessing

[Anonymous Coward]

Say what you want, but Free XXX is always good. Unless you're... well, you know...

• needing to work?
• religious?
• preferring to think about your partner in lawful marriage?
• wanting to use your brain for a weekend project?
• under a vow of celibacy?
• already worn out from too many one-night-stands in one night?

Re:I will remember to mod down those suckers

[Anonymous Coward]

... Mormon?

I'll stick with my...

[MadAnthony02]

FreeDryerLint.info

I created this site to put in my sig on various sites after getting annoyed by all the freeipod referal links)

Re:Because it actually works...

[Lovepump]

We need to get only 4 other people to sue you, and I get a free Ipod.

Re: Time is money

[kinzillah]

yes, but the hard part is creating the 5 street addresses, birth certificates and credit cards.

Re:Read this carefully

[Zorilla]

Yes, but would offering a cute screensaver for it change things?

Re:Read this carefully

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

I've often thought about a website devoted to courtesy card havoc. Maybe everyone uploads their number, and each week you print off a new barcode for yours. We could even have a week where we all use the same number simultaneously...

Think about it. We'd drive the poor sap crazy that tries to do the actual data mining. "Here he is buying $500 worth of groceries in upstate NY, and 6 minutes later he is buying peanut butter with foodstamps in florida!"

Of course, how long before the cease and desist letter was mailed?

You can make more people

[Anonymous Coward]

And it only takes about 9 months to make more people.

I am sure there are lots of slashdotters ready to sign up for that program...

Get you free iPod here - the easy way

[Anonymous Coward]

Click here, pay a small shipping fee of $249 and your free iPod mini will be shipped to you right away!

Moral of the story: If you want something, buy it you cheap prick, don't beg like some highway offramp whore.

Re:Read this carefully

[k4_pacific]

I have two of those cards. One is under the name "Carly Fiorina" and I use it for most purchases. The ither has my real name, and I only use it when I buy condoms or sour cream.

So this guy goes into a bar ...

[Anonymous Coward]

So this guy goes into a bar and sits down next to this nice, young woman. He says "Will you sleep with me for a free iPod?" She pauses, thinks about it, and says yes. Then he says "Will you sleep with me for $10?" She gets all pissed off and says "What do you think I am?" He replies "I know what you are, I'm just negotiating the price."

Moral of the story: Begging for a free iPod makes you no better than a truck stop whore.

Re:Read this carefully

[Anonymous Coward]

"The ither has my real name, and I only use it when I buy condoms..."

This is /., so that card must never get used.

Re: Time is money

[Anonymous Coward]

has anyone tried making 5 friends?

is it hard? do you have to go outside?

Friends don't hawk Ponzi-Pods!

[bhima]

I don't make myself available to advertisers. I don't have a TV, I don't fill out sweepstakes entries, I don't read postal mail not addressed to me, I don't read spam. I don't tolerate having my "Friends" subject me to advertising. That's the real point.

It has little to do with the reality of the iPod, or the cost of the iPod. But has everything to do with the offensiveness of the distribution mechanism.

Which is why I systematically 'Foe' everyone I see hawking ponzi-pods.

Re:Read this carefully

[aliquis]

I'll send you an iPod for $1. All you need to do is to send me the $1 bill, then ask 50 of your friends to send me $1 each, then tell 50 of THEIR friends to send me $1 each. In addition, every one of your 50 friends can also get an iPod for $1, as long as every one of their 50 friends send me $1.

Sure, from the first person you would actually get 1+50+50*50=$2551, but on the last part you would lose... Since you would only get $51 from them, sure you would have some money left after the first round but if all the people wanted an ipod you would get $2551+50*$51=$5101 for 51 ipods.

But it wouldn't matter since they wouldn't (or even had) get 50 friends to sign up, but anyway! :D

What a waste of storage and bandwidth this message was.

Re:There really are ways to earn free IPODs

[Anonymous Coward]

The easiest way is probably to steal one, though.