Want free laptop? I'm still waiting

Despite countless warnings that nothing in life is free, many of us continue to fall for the promise of something for nothing.

With money tight in many households, offers of free laptops, iPods, gift cards and even medication sound even more alluring. But the reality is far from the promise.

In the past year, the Federal Trade Commission has charged dozens of companies with violating advertising laws and reached settlements amounting to millions of dollars, said Claudia B. Farrell, a spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission.

It's not fair to say that all companies that advertise free products are operating illegally. But even legitimate offers can come with strings attached and fine print that you must read carefully.

You might have heard one radio pitch by a company called I Want My Free Laptop. The ad makes the deal sound so simple. It claims that the company can afford to offer free laptops because all the traffic the giveaway draws to the Web site generates publicity for sponsors.

So I logged onto www.iwantmyfreelaptop.com to find out just how free it is.

The home page is designed to get you excited, asking you to choose which computer brand you want. My choices included a Sony Vaio, Apple MacBook and Toshiba Satellite.

Next, I had to type my e-mail address to continue. Once I finished a marketing survey, I would be on my way to getting my free laptop.

Nearly two hours later, after completing about a half-dozen surveys, I came to a screen that indicated that I had to purchase three products at a discount to continue. When I read the big print, it appeared that I was getting cheap Disney DVDs. But I saw in the fine print that I also was signing up to buy five DVDs a year -- for more than $20 each.

I stopped there. I didn't get a free laptop. But I did get other freebies: about 30 e-mail messages a day and daily phones calls from sales people offering to sell me things I had said I liked in the surveys.

Dale Baker, president of TheUseful.com, the company that runs the Web site, said that purchases are not required to get the free laptop and that I must have done something wrong. He said I could have called the customer service number on the Web site and someone would have guided me through the site. He said his company has given away thousands of laptops.

Beverly Baskin, president of the Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina, wasn't surprised by my story. Her office regularly gets complaints about free offers.

" 'Free' is a relatively elusive term when it comes to online offers," Baskin said. "If you are willing to jump through some pretty extreme hoops, give your name and e-mail information ... expose yourself to countless sales pitches and unwanted ads, you may eventually get a laptop."

But use "extreme caution in responding to a too-good-to-be-true offer."

You can check the companies out at the FTC (www.ftc.gov) or Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) Web sites.

And don't ever get blinded by that powerful word: free.