freegiftworld.com

[Deja Q]

Is this nothing more than spam?

[salvorhardin]

1. Yes and no. Pretty much.

There was a recent article in the NY Times on this.

A Web Offer Too Good to Be True? Read the Fine Print
By BARBARA WHITAKER
Published: December 26, 2004

These offers and similar ones on the Internet promise gifts for buying products or services. Are they for real? At best, yes, but they can also be riddled with problems. Participants may have to spend a lot to qualify or may not get the reward if they fail to follow what can be complicated rules. Ultimately, they may end up with nothing more than a big increase in spam as their e-mail address and other information is passed along or sold.

Complaint sites are filled with messages from consumers who say they participated in such programs only to come up empty-handed.

(continued...)

There was also a Slashdot discussion in reference to the article.

It's multilevel marketing. If it's something you really want, and you have a large enough pool of friends to annoy (and subsequently sucker into participating), then you can probably get what you want; just be sure to create a throw-away gmail account to use with the offer.

I also have to say that freegiftworld.com has some of the cheeziest offers I've seen to date. I don't believe any of them is worth the time, effort and frustration to get them for free. IMHO, of course.