Free Apex DVD player; is it legit? (1 Viewer)

[Timmy]

I received an email stating I was 1 of 300 selected to receive a free Apex DVD player (only having to pay $20 S&H).
All I had to do (other than pay the shipping) is to fill out an evaluation card after I receive the unit.
Has anyone else received this notification?
You have been selected to receive, free of charge, a brand new Apex multiformat DVD player!
We are giving away 300 of our Apex multiformat DVD players as part of our current promotion to prove that Apex performs above and beyond other brands when compared to price and quality. You were selected by one of our affiliates at random to take part in our promotion! Congratulations!
OKAY… What's the catch?
The catch is that we need you to fill out a customer survey card that comes with the unit and drop in the mail, letting us know your opinion of the Apex multiformat DVD player after using the product. A pretty small request in exchange for keeping the unit! We only ask for the cost of shipping that it takes for us to deliver the unit to your door, which is only $19.70 via United Parcel Service (UPS) Delivery.
When filling out the shipping form, please enter Promotional Code #xxxxxxxx
if its not already entered on the form. For shipping charges, we proudly use Paypal for processing, for your protection as well as ours.

 

[BryanZ]

It is worth about $20 and probably is legit. Might as well go for it at that price. If nothing else you may end up with a secondary dvd player.

 

[Mike LS]

I'd be very suspicious.
Not to say that I wouldn't check into it....hey, there's always the possibility.
My first question would be what was the email address it came from? The message makes it sound like it's Apex that's doing the "promotion". If it came from something other than an "official" Apex email address.....of course I'm not sure what the Apex website is....I'm trying to find it now, but it's not that easy to find!
Also, the paypal thing is sort of a curve. If this were really Apex doing this, I think they'd be able to take credit cards directly.
If you know it's from a third party, I'd have to be able to call someone and have an address of the company before I'd let them have any of my money.
Granted, with Paypal they can't rip you off of anything other than the $20, but still.....$20 is $20.

 

[James Q Jenkins]

Congratulations! It only costs $20 to find out, what the hell!
------------------
-JQJ

 

[Susana Anderton]

PayPal??? If they were legit they'd let you use a credit card.

 

[Ted Lee]

"If it's too good to be true..."
I've never heard of any corporation use paypal.
------------------
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

 

[Denward]

Circuit City is giving away a free Apex AD1500 DVD player if you sign up for Sprint PCS. They claim it is a $100 value. I used to work for a company that supplied lots of the gifts given to people who sat through vacation timeshare sales pitches. MSRPs were always highly inflated as the items were usually pretty much junk.

 

[Timmy]

Apparently PayPal has already closed down the account. Now you are taken to another site "CCNOW.COM". I called them. CCNOW is a credit card clearing house. I told their associate about the email. He said they know nothing about those that use their service... and then responded to my question if it was real or not "If it quacks like a duck".
Then I called Apex themselves in Ontario, Ca. They were aware of the email and said it wasn't from them; and Apex knows nothing about such an offer.
I also replied to the original email asking for more information on the promotion. I got back a "message undeliverable" error. The email address was "[email protected]".
[Edited last by Timmy on September 26, 2001 at 04:02 PM]

 

[Rob Robinson]

I would post the headers of that email so that others can be on the lookout for that shady outfit. Something definately sounds amiss.

 

[Timmy]

Subject: RE: Congratulations! You Won a DVD Player!

 

[Rob Robinson]

doh. thats the subject.
the header would look like:
(below example shows a message from Digital Eyes email to my work email account)
Received: from x-ip.net (207.234.95.5 [207.234.95.5]) by bellini.sevenww.com with SMTP (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service Version 5.5.2653.13)
id THC6YA11; Wed, 26 Sep 2001 12:51:29 -0500
Received: (qmail 8287 invoked from network); 26 Sep 2001 17:52:43 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO ci513203-b.mail.x-ip.net) (24.2.101.187)
by mail.x-ip.net with SMTP; 26 Sep 2001 17:52:43 -0000
Message-Id:
X-Sender: [email protected]@mail.digitaleyesdvd. com (Unverified)
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 12:47:28 -0500
To: [email protected]
From: Digital Eyes
Subject: Final Order Confirmation (was Re: Order From Web Site)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
if this is a scam (which it sounds like) , this info would be needed to contact ISPs, law enforcement, etc...

 

[Timmy]

Gee, I've had the "header" part disabled for so long; I forgot about it!
Here is the link the email sent me to:
Link Removed
Here is the header:
From: "Apex DVD"
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 08:56:53
Subject: RE: Congratulations! You Won a DVD Player!
Message-ID: PM20008:56:53 AM
Received: from mx8.boston.juno.com (mx8.boston.juno.com [64.136.24.130])
by m9.boston.juno.com with SMTP id AAA75DV36A2RQLAA
for (sender );
Wed, 26 Sep 2001 08:51:08 -0400 (EST)
Received: from mx.boston.juno.com (207-172-216-76.s584.apx1.sbo.ma.dialup.rcn.com [207.172.216.76])
by mx8.boston.juno.com with SMTP id AAA75DV34AR9P88A
for (sender );
Wed, 26 Sep 2001 08:51:06 -0400 (EST)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_VLVZYEWSOH"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Return-Path:

 

[Michael Knieriemen]

SpamCop reported this on the headers you provided...
"ISP has already cancelled the account used to send this spam. ISP resolved this issue sometime after Wednesday, September 26, 2001 6:40:05 AM -0500"
[Edited last by Michael Knieriemen on September 27, 2001 at 10:44 AM]