Dec 7

Written by: wayne bucklar
Thursday, December 07, 2006

The email message included below is a hoax.

Sony Ericsson will not give the recipient of this email message a free phone - while some companies have tried and been apparently successful, this form of spam generating promotion is useually a hoax, most sound too good to be true and they are. 

 

I received a couple of versions of this recently and just searched for the text in Google and found heaps of references to it being a hoax.

 

If  you like clicking on links - you can see the hoax report at http://www.hoax-slayer.com/issue55.html#eight or read the etxt from the website below.

 

 

Sony Ericsson will not give the recipient of this email message a free phone even if he or she does send it to 8 or more people. Those who send an email to the contact address included in the email will receive the following automated message from Sony Ericsson:

Dear sender,

This message / promotion is not a genuine Sony Ericsson promotion. We suspect that the people behind this hoax virus/email campaign hope to obtain and misuse the personal data of those who participate.

Please do not forward this promotion on.

Kind regards

Press Office

Sony Ericsson

Versions of this aging email hoax have been circulating for several years. The original incarnation targeted Nokia rather than Ericsson, but the content of the message was very similar to the example shown above.

After the Nokia hoax began circulating, someone launched the first Ericsson version (shown below) that claimed Ericsson wanted to "counter" Nokia's offer by giving away free Ericsson phones.

Interestingly, both the Nokia and Ericsson adaptations of the hoax claim to be endorsed by one "Anna Swelund", or variations such as "Anna Swelam" and Anna Swelan".

As stated, there are several mutations of this hoax, all of them equally false. It would be highly unlikely that Ericsson, Nokia, or any other reputable company, would launch a promotional campaign based on how many times a particular message was sent onward. If you receive one of these email hoaxes, please inform the sender that the message is untrue and do not send it to others.

References:
Nokia Giveaway Hoax
Ericsson Free Phone Hoax

Copyright ©2006 wayne bucklar

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