Claim: Forwarding a text message to ten other people will get you a $60.00 or $160 credit on your cell phone bill.
FALSE
Examples:
[Collected via e-mail, December 2008]
Today I got 3 text messages on my phone stating the following, "SPRINT FREE-MSG: All Sprint Customers send this message to ten people and sprint will credit your account $60.00* both billing or prepayed. enjoy ur holiday"
[Collected via e-mail, December 2008]
i just recieved this text message
"AT&T FREE-MSG. Attention! All AT&T Customers send this message to ten people and AT&T will credit your account $60.00. * both billing and prepaid
MERRY CHRISTMAS"
[Collected via e-mail, December 2008]
I received the following text this morning. It seems too good to be true.
"Msg: T-MOBILE FREE-MSG.
Attention all T-Mobile Customers send this message to ten people and
[Collected via e-mail, December 2008]
I have received 2 text messages, from two different people on my cell phone the message is:
Msg: ALLTEL
FREE MSG. Attention! All Alltel customers send this message to ten people and Altel will credit your account $60.
[Collected via e-mail, December 2008]
I've received a text message to my phone that says Verizon Wireless will credit $60.00 off of next months bill if I forward the text to
[Collected via e-mail, December 2008]
I was sent a text yesterday stating:
Sprint together with Nextel: send text to
I contacted sprint and they let me know this was not TRUE!!
[Collected via e-mail, December 2008]
i just recieved a text message that says
"CINGULAR (THE NEW AT@T)-F2DE-MSG. Attention! All Cingular Customers send this message to ten people and Cingular will credit your account $60!"
Is this for real????
[Collected via e-mail, June 2009]
R.I.P. Michael Jackson: All cell phone Customers sent this message to ten people and cell company will credit your account $60.00. No Joke!
[Collected via e-mail, April 2010]
AT&T FREE-MSG.
Attention! All AT&T Customers send this message to ten people and AT&T will credit your account $160.00 *both billing or prepaid. This is true I called at&t
Hey everyone this is true I called them tooo
Origins: December 2008 saw a new outbreak of a variant of the long-running "get stuff for free by
forwarding a message to other people" hoax hit the cellular world, with customers of several different cell phone networks receiving text messages promising a $60.00 credit on their bills for forwarding those messages to ten other people. (This same variant previously appeared at least as far back as May 2008.)
At the end of June 2009, the
In April 2010, the hoax came back for another
The medium may be slightly different, but the underlying hoax is still the same: Businesses aren't giving out money and free merchandise to people who forward messages, but pranksters are having a laugh at getting people to fall for it.
Last updated: 9 April 2010