So I'm planning on getting a free MacBook Pro from a website

[Dark Bayleef]

Now I know what you must think, but bare with me.

We've all seen the videos on YouTube of people unboxing Macbooks they've gotten from Lockerz, freemacbooks and other sites of very questionable legitimacy. But how can we trust these people? They could just be scammers right?

Well, over the next few weeks I'm planning on trialling these sites to see if somewhere out there, one of them is actually REAL.

I have two questions to anyone in the community, where should I start, and has anyone had any experience with any of these sites before? IE What is a scam, what isn't?

What am I going to do to keep myself safe from spam, fraud, etc?

Well, I have made an email account with no connection to anything else for one. I plan on registering with a PO box if I can, if not I will use the address of my friend's house (who I have prior consent to use and seeing as the house is currently empty...). I will not pay for ANYTHING, so any sites that request credit card information will instantly be ignored.

The whole point of getting a "free" MBP is to get a real MBP for FREE.

And no, this isn't a scam offer to try to get anyone to sign up to a fraudulent site, this is a legitimate attempt to get a free MBP out of personal curiosity. Why am I posting this here? This is one of the largest sites on the internet for Apple information. If anyone is going to have experience in these sites to give me pointers, I know it will be here. Secondly, if anyone in the future wishes to investigate these offers, there will be a record of it on a public forum that I tried it myself and either succeeded with well documented proof, or failed and proved that it's to good to be true.

- DBL

 

[aethelbert]

The whole point of getting a "free" MBP is to get a real MBP for FREE.

Nothing is free. But have fun jumping through countless hoops to no avail.

 

[miles01110]

Good luck. I personally wouldn't bother.

 

[bbtrinet]

Go for it.

You do realize that EVERY ONE of the web sites which offer free macs or free anything else require credit cards for you to sign up for trial things. You'll end up paying more with the credit cards than what you'd pay for a mac. That's how they stay in 'business'.

The basic idea is for them to get your Credit Card number, sign you up to 50+ 'free trial' offers, of which you only have a few hours to cancel, and which you'll find impossible to cancel before the free trials end (like you have to send them a letter via US mail to cancel, which won't arrive at their offices until a week later). You'll end up buying a lot of junk you don't need or want.

 

[enberg]

So you want us to advice you on how to best become a spammer?

 

[thebeautyisfake]

Pyramid schemes get me GOING.

 

[niuniu]

How do we know you're not 'in on it' April 2010 OP?

 

[Dark Bayleef]

I didn't expect so many replies so quickly. Anyway, no I really don't expect this to work. However, I don't see any reason not to try either. As I said, I won't sign up to anything that requires credit card information etc. If I am required to sign up to a trial website, sure thing as long as it's free.

I'm not trying to become a spammer or to scam anyone, as I said this is purely my own experiment, and I completely understand that I most likely won't end up with a computer, nor will the vast majority of sites I attempt to get one from be legitimate.

Most people don't bother with these sites, so hopefully by actually TRYING, there is a very slim chance I might actually get some reward out of it.

How do we know you're not 'in on it' April 2010 OP?

You don't, of course you couldn't. Just as I have no reason to trust that any of these sites actually has a brand new shiny MBP for me. But I'm still going to try anyway, and see what happens. I'm not supplying links to any website or names, nor will I. Like I said, I'm not actually expecting to get one and I'm not trying to convince people that it's worth trying to do.

If I fail, then I have lost nothing but time (of which I have to much), but gained some valuable experience and knowledge.

If I succeed, then huzzah, free MacBook Pro, I'll have two of the suckers. Incidentally, I'm hoping it will be one of the new i7s that Apple will (hopefully) be launching tonight with the Apple Store being down. But a Core 2 would be nice too...

- DBL

 

[ippikiokami]

common sense, scam, no company can give away "free laptops" and survive. they are getting something from you one way or another.

if you don't give your CC number out there is a 100% chance you won't get past the few pages of offers.