Honestly, I thought the days of the “forward this e-mail on to x number of people and you’ll get a free y product” messages were behind us. Doesn’t everyone know that these messages are always a hoax?

I thought we all knew that. But this morning I logged in to my mail to see that I was the latest lucky recipient of a mass spam mailing. Other HowStuffWorks.com writers were also in that lucky bunch. The e-mail said “I wonder if this is a scam. Oh well.” Following that message was a series of other messages, and buried deep inside was the original “offer.”

That supposed offer was to send a free Sony Ericsson T18 Laptop to anyone who forwarded the message on to at least eight other people. Sending it to at least 20 would get you an upgrade to an R320 Laptop. To add a little authenticity to the bogus offer, the message asks that you carbon copy the message to a person with an Ericsson.com e-mail address. Presumably, this was how Sony would keep track of people taking advantage of this amazing deal. I’m not going to include the e-mail address here because I’m sure that this person, if she does exist, is already tired of receiving dozens (if not hundreds or thousands) of spam messages.

The offer isn’t legitimate. Why would it be? What company would offer up a free laptop computer — a piece of hardware worth hundreds of dollars — for something as simple as forwarding a message on to eight other people? What would stop anyone from creating dozens of e-mail addresses just to earn more computers? It makes no sense! Furthermore, imagine the legwork this poor Ericsson person would have to do just to follow up with people who had forwarded the message! If you apply even a tiny bit of critical thinking to the situation it doesn’t hold up.

Some of the messages in the forwarded chain o’ garbage claimed that the sender had already taken the time to go to Snopes.com to check on the claim and that it was valid. That’s simply not true. All it takes is a quick visit to Snopes. Type in “Sony Laptop” in the search bar. This is the page that will come up as a result. See the big red circle with the word “False” next to it? That means the claim is a hoax. The site even points out the fraudulent claims people make about visiting Snopes to verify the offer.

That wasn’t very hard to do. In fact, verifying the claim was easier than creating an e-mail for at least eight people! With a minimum amount of research you can check to see if an offer is legitimate before you send the message on to others and potentially annoy them enough to create a blog post about it.

I know the prospect of getting something for nothing (or practically nothing) is very tempting. I know it seems like it doesn’t do much harm to just send an e-mail along. If it doesn’t work, it’s just one more spam message, right? What’s wrong about that? Here’s my take:

1. Spam already makes up the majority of all e-mail sent across the Internet. According to Barracuda Networks, it accounts for 95 percent of all e-mail. Most of that comes from botnets. Do we really want to add to that already astronomical number?
2. Even if the people to whom you send the message don’t care about receiving a single piece of spam, think of the person at Sony Ericsson that gets copied on all those messages. How would you like it if you logged in to your e-mail to find your inbox full of messages from people expecting to receive a computer for nothing?
3. It is easier to verify the claim than it is to follow directions! I know we’re lazy, but let’s at least be efficiently lazy!

I am now going to go take a time out in the break room and breathe into a paper bag for 30 minutes or so. In the meantime, go visit HowStuffWorks.com and learn more about scams, spam and ways you can avoid driving tech journalists insane:

How E-mail Works
How Spam Works
How Identity Theft Works
How E-mail Scams Work