Marks & Spencers, in conjunction with Persimmon Homes, are giving away free vouchers. Marks & Spencers are trying word-of-mouth advertising to introduce its products and the reward you receive for advertising for them is free non-refundable vouchers to be used in any M&S store.
To receive your free vouchers by e-mail all you have to do is to send this email out to 8 people (for £100 of free vouchers) or 20 people (for £500 of free vouchers). Within 2 weeks you will receive an e-mail with your vouchers attached.
They will contact you through your e-mail address.
Please mark a copy to:
I?ve received this email twice today and am amazed at the amount of people who have forwarded it on in the hope of getting free vouchers. This is obviously spam and I?m putting this up here so that it may be referenced by people searching around for its validity.
I did a simple bit of scanning and can find no reference of it apart from on this forum, where the first incident of this email was in February 2005, over two year ago now, so even if M&S had really started this email I doubt they?d be doing it now.
The second clue is that it?s an almost exact copy to this spam email:
Hi All,
Sony Erricsson is giving away phones for free. Sony Erricsson is trying
word-of-mouth advertising to introduce its product and the reward you
receive for advertising for them is a free phone free of cost. To receive
your free phone all you have to do is to send this email out to 8 people
(for a free Sony Erricsson j200i) or 20 people (for a free Sony Erricsson
k400i WAP). Within 2 weeks you will receive a free phone.(They will contact you through your e-mail address).
Please mark a copy to:
And the third clue is that if an offer is too good to be true then it usually is. Do you really think Marks & Spencer would resort to something like this just to get a few emails, especially when it?s just recently announced near-record profits?
It?s not a malicious email, but is simply clogging up inboxes, and I have replied to all the people on the email to pass them on this information to hopefully stop them from extending it?s cycle. I also feel sorry for poor old who has no doubt had to change his email, or has more likely left the company by now anyway.
????????
Update: You can read all about the email here.
Persimmon Homes have now also added a message to their website.
I received this today as well and like you, I can?t believe people really think it?s genuine!
I hope you don?t mind if I refer the sender to your blog?
No probs. I?m glad it helped.
I?ve received this today and so have two of my colleagues.
I?ve submitted it to Snopes.
I wish people would check these things out before they pass them on.
Thanks for flagging it.
Hi
Thanks for the note above! someone in my company emailed 50 people! And im not impressed because this will start a major work load for our servers! (im in the IT Dept). I was able to forward this blog to everyone on the email?.hopefully before they start emailing the world!
Thanks again
An excellent blog, thanks for the tip. These scams annoy me but not as much as the people who fall for these ?get something for nothing? schemes and then clog up everyone?s mail boxes with their rubbish.
Cheers, John
I was suspicious of the email from a friend that I received today about this. I ?Googled? it and came upon your blog, let?s just say that the sender of my email is now aware and is probably re-emailing all those that she sent it to!
Thanks for mentioning it.
Thanks for so promptly checking it out. I thought it was a load of rubbish. As if M and S need to do this. It doesn?t make business sense. Am emailing my friend who sent it to me today 5th June 2007. I really thought these urban myths were slowing down but it appears they are still doing the rounds.
Thanks Adem for posting this, I received it today and hoped I would be able to find something on the web to say is ws a scam and there you are.
Will send people to your blog now.
Thanks
Ali
Snopes has now updated their web site with this one. The link to their site is
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/marks.asp
I just can?t believe that people honestly believe M&S would give you £100 for sending 8 emails?
I have received this mail from at least
20 different people, are we all that
gullible?
Friend at work says it is a way of getting
e mail addresses. In that can they?ve got
mine!
I don?t think there?s a real way of getting people?s email addresses from something like this unless the cc?d person was collecting them.
If they really wanted people?s emails it would be easier to redirect them to a site and get them inputed there. This hoax is just simply there to clog up inboxes, slow down servers, and give a laugh to the people who made it up.
Cheers Pal.
I get this kind of crap from my sister.
I always check authenticity and you were the first to publish.
I?ve posted the info on another web forum I?m a member of.
I have just been forwarded this link in response to said email which I recieved today:
http://corporate.persimmonhomes.com/psn/siteservices/contactus/
Thanks for info on the blog too!
I did forward it, having tried to check it out, and now feel incredibly stupid as I have NEVER fallen for anything like this before. Guess I?m just thick?!
M & S / Persimmon mail. Sounded too good to be true ? glad you had this on your website so I could check it
Many thanks for the information. I was highly suspicious when I received the first e-mail, been getting quite a few since then! I just ignored it and didn?t forward on.
well done for leaving Andy.curran?s email in there.. it?s what I googled for.
It?s quite shocking to see how easily people are duped. Thinking about it logically, from a business point of view its suicide to offer £100 for just sending 8 e mails!
Your blog is good? i actually googled the company as persimmon sounds more like an AD or PR agency, i thought it may of been a bad stunt. oh well.
I received a copy of this email today but thanks to a quick google search and this site I?ve deleted it.
Thanks very Much!
Hi
This is an hoax mail?
for refrence
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/marks.asp
Maybe that chap at Persimmon Homes pissed someone off as he?d be getting totally spammed by all the people copying him in on their mails?
I received it once and just clicked the delete button? like you say, it was too good to be true!
Oh well I do think it?s rather funny and people are getting soooo upset about it. I?m just thinking about all the food I was going to buy with it?..
I don?t think it is funny, I have sent it to people who I know will be disappointed that it is a hoax, having gone to a lot of trouble to send it out. These things are cruel but we should all know that ?you don?t get owt for nowt? in this life. I normally click the delete button but the person who sent it to me is a genuine soul and was obviously also tricked.
This has been going around work. Thank god for this website. Now I can tell everyone at tomorrows meeting what muppets they are!
i have had about 20 of these sent to me i sent one on to a friend who works for m & s it is a haux. thanks for the warning.
just googled for info after just getting the chain mail and was made up to see your blog, thanks for leting us know
Its mad to think that people are prob sitting there still waiting for there marks and sparks vouchers
xx
Thanks for taking the time to inform others of these stupid time wasting, hoaxs.Everyones time and energy would be better spent amongst friends rather than trying to make a quick buck from get rich quick schemes.
Re: Harvesting E-Mail Addresses
This is the most likely reason behind this scam. If you look closesly you?ll notice that the e-mail address in the Hoax message isn?t the correct Persimmon Homes URL ? they?ve added an extra S. Whoever owns this fake domain is the one harvesting the addresses.
I belived the email thinking that M&S ill not pull a stunt like this.I sat at my desk making plans for the money.It was only when I a failed message in my inbox I felt a fool.
Whomever started this hoax you certainly had me fooled
I can?t believe this is still doing the rounds after all this time. Well in fact I can as I?ve seen so mail email scams like this which just go round and round and round.
James makes an excellent point. You may find in the next few days that all those who have had their e-mail address sent to the fake web site will get another e-mail saying thay have been awarded £100.00 and to please provide bank details so that their account can be credited. I wouldn?t be surprised if they ask for a PIN as well.
I can?t believe I?m getting £500 of vouchers!! wohooo!
What a load of bulla inflatus.
Just got sent this?grr. This is gonna be a lean Christmas for many families, and world of spammers out there are capitalising on that. Then they will spam you with even more spam on the basis of your reply to the spam. Eventually you reply so much to the spammage that your inbox begins to resemble a block of processed meat?thats the deal boys and girls..
Nice Blog. Thanks For Sharing
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