TANSTAAFL

[hyphenate]

For those who have ever hung out in SF circles, you know that TANSTAAFL stands for "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." Translated, it means that even if something appears to be a good thing, there is usually a hitch somewhere along the line, even if it's not coming out of your pocket.

The reason I mention that is I've gotten SO tired of all these ads and popups that are everywhere online, even to the point of glutting our email boxes with such crap that our computers hold more potential shit than our toilets.

But I'm curious. Has anyone ever followed up on any of these offers? The kind that promise a free IPod, a free laptop, free movie tickets, or any one of a dozen toys or gifts, just for "testing their products?"

I've clicked on them a couple of times, but then you're at the stage where they say (in teensy weeny letters) that you have to "complete an offer" in order to get the "free item" that you were originally promised was "free" without a hitch, and suddenly you're taken for a ride on their not-so-free express, to the tune of perhaps a couple of hundred dollars, or to the alternate reality of getting even more spam and junk mail shoved down your virtual throat.

And that doesn't even count the Nigerian scams, which seem to come in nearly daily at times, and at least weekly on a regular basis. It seems that it's not just limited to those rascally Nigerians anymore, with some Saudis, Turks and others getting in on the act. And rightly so, we can shake our heads and laugh and think, hey, if someone is such a greedy bastard that they get sucked in to that kind of scheme, it's their own greed, selfishness and naivete that has put them on the road to Loserville.

So you have to wonder when you see an offer from what sounds like a legitimate group telling you that you, too, can win a new notebook computer if you will take a survey, or if you just "click" on the link, or whatever. But 9 times out of every 10, the ones who click enter a spam and junk mail hell from which they might not return. TANSTAAFL.

[Clintmax]

1. I get e-mails like thse every day as well...

I also see ads like them at the top of some websites home pages. I never have clicked any of the links because I just thought they are a scam.