A businessman logged onto his computer and received a message reading something to the effect:
“You’ve been selected to receive a free laptop computer. Please click on the link below and visit our site to reserve your free laptop.”
The businessman, well educated and trained in the ways of the world, clicked onto the link and ended up at a website he’d not been to before in his life. The site indicated that the curious businessman had been selected to participate in a research study.
The text at the site requested that the businessman provide some specific and personal information to be registered for the free laptop. Perhaps because he was hurried, perhaps because he was tired, the gentleman provided the site’s Webmaster with his date of birth, drivers license information and a credit card number.
As you might imagine, the rest was history and not a very happy one. The businessman’s identity was stolen and he never heard again, not a word, about obtaining a free laptop
Consumers online must be ever vigilant about providing information of any nature (like phone, name, address, social security details, credit card numbers etc.) to a strange person or strange business on the World Wide Web. Indeed, unless you are sure that you are ordering a product or service from an absolutely reliable vendor, never ever provide any information of a personal nature to anyone on the Internet.
The lure of a free laptop is only one of many scams that are used by people on the Internet to con and rob from others. Indeed, there are very few honest businesses that ever seriously make the offer of a free laptop. Should anyone ever contact you about the prospect of receiving a free laptop, simply assume that a scam artist is approaching you. By assuming you are on the radar of a bad player and keeping away from him you will save yourself a good deal of money and grief.