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Facebook Scam Targets MacBook Air Lust


The Better Business Bureau is warning Facebook users to read the fine print when responding to ads.

A recent BBB press release stated that an estimated $1.3 billion will be spent on social networking advertising this year. The large print on ads featured on social networking sites, like Facebook and Myspace, do not always tell the entire story.

The warning about MacBook Air scams is a hoot:

Also common on Facebook are ads to get a free MacBook Air claiming that the company is seeking laptop testers. The ads lead to an incentive marketing program at http://www.colormyrewards.com/ where participants must sign up for various products and services in order to earn their free laptop.

The Fine Print: Customers must complete two options from each of the three tiers, Top, Prime and Premium before receiving their “free” MacBook. Example offers listed in the Top and Prime tiers include signing up for credit cards or trial offers for subscription services such as for vitamin supplements or DVD rental services. In some cases, the participant will need to pay for shipping, and if they aren’t vigilant about canceling the trial offers they signed up for, they’ll begin being billed every month.

Examples of the Premium offers listed on the Web site that must be met in order to get the MacBook are much more expensive and include paying as much as $1,500 for furniture or purchasing a travel package with a minimum value of $899.00 per person.

BBB Warns: Incentive programs can be extremely costly in the long run and the fine print shows that the customer might have to pay a significant amount of money in order to get their “Free” items. It is also a red flag that Apple does not even make MacBook Air in purple, red, pink, or green. (Emphasis mine.)

And as flickr user 4braham noted (image used with a CC license) the Mac in the scam pic isn’t a MacBook Air. Sheesh!

Via News & Tribune

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek, and since 1999 on her site, Zoomata. If you're so inclined, friend her on Facebook or connect on Linked in.

Email the author | Read more posts by Nicole Martinelli.

4 comments

    Every time I sign into Facebook I am amazed at the scams they allow on their pages. Do they have no culpability for the ads they allow? I suppose a scammer’s money is as green as a legitimate advertiser.
    I vote them all down with the tag “misleading,” but they should really have a “scam” option. When I tag an ad as misleading, it just comes back over and over.

    I thought that the picture of the ORANGE Macbook Air I saw on Facebook was weird…

    Luckily, I was viewing the sight on my MBP. :)

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