Free Retail Rewards Scam Legitimate or Too Good to Be True?

Laptop Computer Offered as Enticement in Free Retail Rewards Scam
I'm sitting here minding my own business when an enticing pop-up appears on my computer. Normally I'm immune to such offers, but this one is designed to look like an official system message. A box appears with the same navy box sidebar that a lot of system messages contain. It says "SYSTEM STATUS: Your Urgent Attention is Required! You have been chosen to receive a FREE* Gateway laptop PC." There is even a next button to click the offer similar to a lot of windows messages so your Pavlovian response is to just naturally click the next button.

First Red Flag - Overabundance of Asterisks Warn Of Free Retail Rewards Scam
The offer from freeretailrewards.com entices further "This exclusive offer is only available online. Limited time only. FREE* shipping and handling! To claim your FREE* Gateway laptop PC, click Next below." You think that the number of asterisks should have automatically sent off warning bells that free retail rewards is obviously some sort of scam, far from legitimate and definitely too good to be true. Compound that with the fact that the * qualifier is in soft grey saying "see offer details".

Second Red Flag - General Offers Tip Off Free Retail Rewards Scam
What happens when you click through? When you click on this Free Retail Rewards scam, you're lead to a general landing page. This is when I got my first unsettling feeling that Free Retail Rewards was not totally on the up and up. There was nothing to acknowledge that I was the person who exclusively "won" this prize. No, hello, Mrs. Jenkins you have won. No customized page. If you're going to scam me, perhaps you could be a little more sophisticated in your programming. The page is tempting as there are pictures of happy people offering testimonials and suspicious proof of their winnings.

Third Red Flag - Too Many Offers from freeretailrewards.com
But then freeretailrewards.com ups the ante by offering other rewards beyond a laptop computer with the chance to choose other gifts such as an iPod or $500 gift certificates. I think, yeah, I can use a couple of iPods and then get somewhat emotionally invested in the choices by scanning the possible rewards trying to decide between two iPod nanos or the iPod package. Then my brain kicks in and like breaking the spell of some mesmerizing electronic snake charmer, I immediately Google "Free Retail Rewards" to check out if it's a scam or not.

Fourth Red Flag - Federal Trade Commission Warns of Free Retail Rewards Scam
On a release dated January 30, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission issued this statement "Online Advertiser Settles FTC Charges. "Free" Products Weren't Free; Settlement Calls for $200,000 Civil Penalty". Basically the Federal Trade Commission discloses that "consumers have to spend money to receive the so-called 'free' items" touted by Free Retail Rewards.

If It's Too Good To Be True
Unfortunately the old adage rings true with the Free Retail Rewards scam. I noticed a few other skeptical consumers also questioned its validity. A posting on Yahoo about a month ago asks "Is Free Retail Rewards a Scam?". On the Q & A Board of Smart Computing someone asks on 5/5/2008 about freeretailrewards acknowledging "The thing that's tempting about this page is that they indicate freebies from a number of reputable vendors: Target,Olive Garden etc".

Respond to Free Retail Rewards At Your Own Peril
On a similar offer for another online offer I once filled out that I think might have been in reference to the possibility of receiving free product offers to test, my inbox then and now continues to be inundated with junk e-mail. Don't do it. The Smart Computing website Q & A moderator even suggests running anti-virus/spyware programs if you click through on any such landing pages just to make sure there are no residual tracking cookies. So I reluctantly but willingly close out the landing page with no further delusions of iPods dancing in my mailbox but with my computer and pocketbook intact.

Sources:
"Online Advertiser Settles FTC Charges, the Federal Trade Commission, 1/30/08
Is Free Retail Rewards a Scam?", Yahoo! Answers, 4/12/2008
"freeretailrewards", smartcomputing.com, 5/5/2008
freeretailrewards.com, Free Retail Rewards website