dealcather.com Check out the freebies forum.

spoofee.com has some good stuff too.

oops dealcatcher.com

None, I am afraid of getting on someone's email list and it being sold. I have way too much email with just GW and a few other friends.

Someone has recently been spamming me with stupid stock tips...grrrrr

Sue

Chemicals to curl yer hair,

Yeah - that's what ya get for asking people to recommend a good stock, I guess.

o j

P.S. Do people running financial advisory sites about effective management of money ...

... offer free samples?

(Of the green stuff, that is, not the advice).

Actually, though I don't have a website, I offer people copies of my money management newsletter ...

... free.

Well, almost - tell quite a few of them that if they use the advice, and it turns out to be valuable to them, money-wise, they're welcome to send me a tip.

The green kind - rather than "advice" kind: you know, like (underpaid) waitresses get.

Trouble is, now that I'm more or less retired, the "occasional" aspect of the newsletter means that the publication dates sort of get scarcer and scarcer.

But - you know what they say - it's the really scarce stuff that's most valuable!!

o j

As a general rule, I think it is a good idea to avoid signing up for anything free. You get something of very small value anyway. I think they are just trying to get your name and other information so they can bombard you with emails, phone calls, junk mail and then sell your information to others and it just goes on and on.....

Yahoo and Hotmail have free email. I have an account I have specifically set up for the freebies I request. Most of the junk gets filtered. I don't give out my phone number or I enter 000-000-0000 if I have to fill in the blank. As far as people sending junk mail, I rearrange my name or go by another one so I can recognize the junk credit cards. For instance, 'Adellabedella" could be 'A. D. Bedella' or 'A. Della Bedella'. I toss the junk I don't want in the trash when I walk in the door.

Honestly, I don't get a lot of junk mail from the sites because I only choose stuff that I think is legitimate in the first place. I get most of my junk mail from places where I legitimately did business. For instance, I just moved to a new state and purchased some clothes through mail order. Now I'm getting calls at a phone number I haven't even memorized yet. I haven't requested any free samples since I've been here either. Also, my student loan company sold my name and address. I can tell because it includes my middle and maiden name which I no longer use, but it appeared that way on their statements.

Adellabedella and anyone else who has moved recently to a new area, one good way to get some great coupons and places to go for free gifts is to conact the Welcome Service. Someone comes to your house and it's a good introduction for the businesses and restaurants in your new area as well.

YEP I got more junk mail than I ever wanted in my snail mail box from those FREE websites.

I used a different name for each one I asked for free stuff from and got way more junk mail than I ever ever wanted. All the sites I signed up to get free stuff from all said they would not be selling my address or sending junk mail they ALL DID. That was several years ago I learned my lesson well and not done that since.

As AdellaBedella said - when I go to ask for something where I suspect that they may peddle my address, I get a new free email address from one of the sites that offer them, often including a set of letters or a word that relates to the issue to which I was responding.

Unfortunately, I'd replied to some from my core addresses before I learned that lesson. And paid the price of my ignorance.

Have you learned that frequently when you "Reply to all" from one of those messages, on a high percentage of the cases, you'll get a reply from the service provider saying that there's no such address as that from which the sender claimed to be sending. And from a substantial number of the other addressees, as well.

I ask you - if a salesperson appears at my door, with a warm handshake and a big smile hanging out on his/her face ...

... and gives me a fake name for himself or his company, or a false address - what do you think the possibility might be that that person would find him/herself doing any business with me?

Sometimes if I want to check one out, I've gone directly to the website from which they've sent their message - which often gives one a bit of a feeling about what may be going on.

Sometimes when I've received messages purporting to be from an established financial institution asking for personal information, I've gone directly to that agency's website, asking if they want me to forward the suspect message, including Full headers.

I seldom get a reply, and not many want me to forward the info.

I think partly because they've found that the sites at issue were only used for a very short period and the perpetrators have already moved on. Or are untraceable, anyway. Or, if they succeed in finding them,it's almost impossible to prosecute. And the perpetrators just move to another address, jurisdiction, etc. and carry on.

Have you looked at the last two letters of the email address from which many originate, indicating in which country the service provider operates?

You might be inclined to buy drugs from some two-bit country?

But - you can sign up with a service provider in distant countries, so there is no certainty that the originator of the message resides anywhere near the location from which his message originated. Or that the goods might originate from either of those countries.

What do they think that the possibility may be that I may choose to put powerful drugs from an unknown source into my precious, irreplaceable body??

If the capsules aren't just filled with sugar - suppose I ever got any, as often the scammers just abscond with the money, sending nothing in return.

Good wishes for finding (the occasional) worthwhile freebie.

ole joyful

P.S. Anyone need some Viagra?

Or the opportunity to share in 15 million or so of unclaimed money in some obscure land, belonging to someone who was killed in a plane crash (with no relatives). They sure have a lot of foreign exchange managers in the Bank of Africa in Oagadougu, Burkina Faso, no?

o j

I have been on freebie lists for years and frequent a number of freebie sites such as slickdeals, Funtasias and Fat wallet. It's a fun hobby for me.
I use a separate email addy and that keeps most of the crap out of my regular account. Don't reply to the spam stuff...there are plenty of legit sites and offers out there. I recommend roboform and entering info. is a snap.
In just this past week I have received a full size tube of St. Ives lotion, Dove shampoo/conditioner samples, another brand of shampoo/conditioner sample ( I can't think of the name right now), a celestial tea sample, and I printed out a coupon for a free Auntie Annes pretzel. I also receive a number of magazines free as well (no credit card either).

Amy

Amy 2005,

About that "celestial tea" ...

... is one required to go to heaven to get it?

Oh - you said that they sent it to you.

Right here.

Congrats - it is possible to get something - for nothing!

Come to think of it, in Sunday School they taught me that Christians were supposed to be good ...

... for nothing.

ole joyful