May 13, 2012. Bill Szydlowski
credit: qthomasbowerClick here! These words are seen flashing at the top of webpages everywhere. Children (and adults) have been taught to never click here! Here is a quick story of why you should never click here! and what will happen if you do.
It’s very difficult to not, at least want to, believe that you’ll win an iPad if you click the flashing add on the side of any given webpage.
It’s so easy! They’ll ship it for free and everything. So one day, you click that sucker. You click it so good, and up pops a form to redeem the prize. Easy enough, complete two of these five offers, and the iPad is on its way. This task is seemingly not too difficult. So, you’ll be almost finished with offer number one, a car insurance quote when a field asking for your telephone number to verify appears. This makes anyone uncomfortable. Upon reading the fine print, the words “4.99 per month service fees apply.” To your cell phone? Are they going to send you a new car insurance quote every month? Its fishy, time to try the next offer.
Offer number two is for a free e-magazine newsletter subscription. Win! You can just subscribe, get your iPad and then remove yourself from the email list. However it turns out to be no cigar, when a subscription to the paper version is required. Next!
Offer number three is targeted towards people with contacts, so moving on to number four is imperative, because now offers four and five MUST be filled out for that brand new iPad. But, oh the horror, offers four and five are similar scams, and you resign yourself to living without the free iPad.
Downtrodden, you decide to check your email to see if your mom has written you back, with advice on that liberal arts degree exit strategy (and hopefully money). What do you find in your inbox? 281 NEW MESSAGES! Thanks for the email address sucker, you clicked here and now you have some serious spam to delve through!
Updated May 13, 2012. Published May 29, 2011. Bill Szydlowski
