Stop Idiocy

Seen in a couple of my Facebook friends’ statuses today:

I like Dunkin’ Donuts as much as the next guy, but can we please stop propagating obvious scams like this one? What is it about the prospect of free stuff that turns otherwise intelligent people into complete morons?

A few details that should have clued the average person in to the fact that this isn’t a real Dunkin’ Donuts promotion:

• It’s “Dunkin’ Donuts”, not “Dunkin Donut” — it’s fairly doubtful that the actual company would make not one, but two glaring mistakes when printing their own name.
• The very prominently-displayed blogspot.com URL is clearly not associated with Dunkin’ Donuts.
• But most of all, the idea that Dunkin’ Donuts — or any company — would voluntarily give away $100 to every Facebook user is idiotic beyond comprehension. There are over 800 million active Facebook users. At $100 a pop, Dunkin’ Donuts would stand to lose $80 billion on a stunt like this. To put that number into perspective, $80 billion is more than 10 times what Dunkin’ Donuts takes in globally every year. It doesn’t take a business genius to realize that the math doesn’t work.

If you don’t want to scrutinize everything on the internet before you click it, there is an even easier way to tell if somebody is trying to take advantage of you. Simply ask yourself two questions whenever you’re tempted to take advantage of the latest “amazing deal” that you see on Facebook or in your email inbox. First, is somebody trying to give you something for free? Is that something worth more than a few bucks? If the answer is yes to both questions, it’s a scam.

Sorry folks, but nobody is going to give you a free vacation, or a free laptop, or free gift cards, or free cash simply for clicking on a link or forwarding an email. These scams are as old as the web, and attempting to cash in on them will only result in you looking like a gullible fool to your friends. And of course, clicking on these types of links carries a serious risk of picking up malicious software, having your email address harvested, and/or exposing your personal information.

So forget the free donuts. Your online friends will thank you. And so will your waistline.