Sony Ericsson T18 Laptop for Free?

Inboxes around the world got hit these days with a new
sequel of the (in)famous Sony Ericsson gadget hoax.

The unsolicited message, usually arriving as a part of a chain
letter from unaware (but, probably, with good intentions) friends or
colleagues, holds a graphic piece displaying the company logo, two laptop
images and a text that invites the recipients to participate in a “brand
promotion” campaign, as you can see below:

 

 

In fact, this is the revival of an (at least) two years old
hoax that promised “computer laptops” in exchange of disseminating a similar
message, that relied on a behavioral vector such as greed as part of social
engineering strategy.

The most striking inadvertences that appear in the message
are associated with the laptop brand and models.

First, Ericsson is a Swedish telecommunication company,
which does not produce laptops (but phones and cells). Its partner from the
joint venture established in 2001, Sony, is the company that manufactures
laptops.

Second, T18 and R320 are not laptop
models, but discontinued cell phones – the ancestors of our contemporary ultra
portable mobiles, introduced about a decade ago.

Last, Sony Ericsson came up earlier this week with a press
release, which confirms that the alleged competition is a fraud and the
contact name, e-mail address and the signer of the announcement are just pure
inventions.