# Are all the ads for free kindle fires a scam?



## glennlangohr (Nov 15, 2011)

Are all the ads for free kindle fires a scam? I see ads on facebook all the time for free kindle fires. Do they want a credit card to get one for free, or what?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I haven't actually checked any of those ads out (I see them for free iPads, too).  I start from the assumption that if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Betsy


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Or, as Geoff Thomas reminds us,
TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)


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## Poovey (Aug 25, 2011)

A lot of the sites advertising "Free $high_dollar_item" want you to join, complete an offer (which usually involves you spending money on a product or service), and then sign up X number of people as your referrals who also join and complete offers. That's about all I know because I looked into what goes on and decided that it was a much-bigger pain in the butt than it was worth. 

I can do stuff like Swagbucks and Superpoints for free. The Amazon gift cards I get from both sites are great; if I want a big-ticket item, I can save the codes until I have enough or combine them with my cash or whatever.


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## Hadou (Jun 1, 2011)

A lot of them tend to be scams.  But, every now and again, you'll find one that is a legit contest that comes with a metric crapload of spam email.  Which is why when I see some of the good (but come with bad) ads, I just use my spam address that I check once a week just to see if I'd won anything.


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## Cyanide5000 (Aug 30, 2010)

Depends how you define scam i guess, they are legit, but very very hard to complete, and then you'll be spammed to death forever. Usually you have to fill in like 10 surveys, and then refer 10 people, and they have to fill out all 10 surveys, and then you have to pay like $49.99 postage.

I did it once, years ago for a Playstation 2, using dummy email addresses and such. A LOT of effort.


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## Sean Patrick Fox (Dec 3, 2011)

There's a chance they're legit, but if they are then the odds of winning are infinitesimal, or it's not worth the energy to do all the tasks required to get the "free" item. And there's no guarantee it will ever arrive.


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## njack26 (Apr 4, 2012)

I have always been amazed that anyone thinks that some entity that they have no association with would want to give them money (or the equivalent in merchandise) for nothing.  If it is not Amazon giving away the Fire, then whoever is giving it away either paid for it or stole it.  So now, the entity buys 100 Kindle Fires (costing $20,000).  They then go looking for random people to give them away to.  For what reason?  Charity?  Random Acts of Kindness?  They are going to need to get more than $200 worth of something in order to make this work.


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Most of the ads or posts on FB that are offering free expensive items are as described above, but Kindles have also become popular as giveaways in legitimate contests on blogs, websites, etc., since they are a relatively inexpensive but highly desired techno-toy. When folks are advertising legitimate contests, however, they usually say a lot more than the typical scammy ads. For example, you might see, "Like our Facebook page for a chance to win a free Kindle!" Such an ad/post makes it clear what you have to do in exchange for what you _might_ win.

--Maria


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## glennlangohr (Nov 15, 2011)

Thanks everyone. Maria, you're right about the promo, "Like our page for a chance to win a free kindle". I also found some other ones where it was an email list thing where you have to sing up x number of people, kind of like a pyramid scheme or ponzi scheme. Yep, if it sounds to good, it is.


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