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Home > Blogs > Taste: Dayton food and restaurants > Archives > 2009 > January > 08 > Entry
Internet hoax bites Applebee’s
A friend and colleague forwarded to me an email that touted a rather generous promotional offer from the Applebee’s restaurant chain. She suggested it might be worth mentioning to readers.
Oh, it’s worth mentioning, all right. Because it’s a hoax.
The email purports to be from the founder of Applebee’s and explains to hopeful recipients that he wants to “get our name out to more people in the rural communities” by offering $50 gift certificates “to anyone who forwards this email to nine of their friends. Just send this email to them and you will receive an email back with a confirmation number to claim your gift certificate.” The email is generally followed by a “testimonial” from someone who swears that it “really works” and that they got their “gift certificate confirmation number” within three minutes of forwarding the email.
False, false, false. Fallacy, hoax, urban legend, silly chain mail, call it what you want, but it’s a big fat lie. Yet thousands of people so badly want it to be true that they dutifully forward the email to nine — or more — of their friends.
Here are excerpts from Applebee’s Guest Relations FAQ page that breaks the news to disappointed customers that they won’t be receiving any gift certificate:
Q: I received an email that said I should forward the message to receive free Applebee’s Gift Certificates. Is it for real?
A: No. A fraudulent email chain message promising Applebee’s Gift Certificates for forwarding the message is currently making its way around the Internet. The message promises a gift certificate and a confirmation number after forwarding the message to a specific number of email addresses. Applebee’s International, Inc. does not sponsor or endorse this activity and is unable to fulfill these requests.
So what do these hopeful folks do when that gift certificate “confirmation number” doesn’t show up in their in-box? Why, they contact Applebee’s, of course.
“Since the urban legend began sometime in 2003, Applebee’s has received nearly 50,000 inquiries” about it via email or phone, said Applebee’s spokesman Miles McMillin.
“Applebee’s Guest Services sends each inquiry a personal e-mail back explaining that it is not a legitimate promotion sanctioned by Applebee’s.”
So how do these hoaxes — there have been similar ones involving Cracker Barrel and Victoria’s Secret, among others — get started? Applebee’s would love to know.
“Applebee’s has no idea how this was started, and our Legal Department has investigated, but because of the reach of the Internet it’s very difficult to find the source,” McMillin said.
Frustrated Applebee’s customers are directed to visit web scam mythbusters sites such as www.breakthechain.org, which has addressed the Applebee’s hoax quite eloquently.
Here’s how a second web site, Hoaxbusters.org, summarizes these types of scams:
Giveaway hoaxes go into great detail describing the wealth that you will receive from some big company if you would only send their message to everyone that you know. What they fail to say is how the big company would even know that you have sent on these messages to anyone, let alone the reason that they would even be willing to bankroll such a giveaway. There is no such thing as “e-mail tracking.” No person or company is giving away money, gift certificates, or anything else, to people who forward chain letters. Everything in these messages is absurd!
Hoaxbusters.org also published its “Top Five Signs That a Message is a Hoax.” Here are excerpts:
— URGENT: The e-mail will have a great sense of urgency! You’ll usually see a lot of exclamation points and capitalization. The subject line will typically be something like: URGENT!!!!!! (or) WARNING!!!!!! (or) IMPORTANT!!!!!! (or) VIRUS ALERT!!!!!!
— TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS: There will always be a request that you share this “important” warning by forwarding the message to everybody in your e-mail address book or to as many people as you possibly can. This is a surefire sign that the message is a hoax.
— THIS ISN’T A HOAX: The body of the e-mail will contain some form of corroboration, such as a pseudoquote from an executive of a major corporation or from a government agency official. Sometimes the message will include a sincere-sounding premise. For example: ” My neighbor, who works for Microsoft, just received this warning so I know it’s true. He asked me to pass this along to as many people as I can.” It’s all a bunch of baloney. Don’t believe it for a second.
— DIRE CONSEQUENCES: The e-mail text will predict dire (but impossible) consequences if you don’t act immediately. The message may inform you that the virus will destroy your hard drive, kill your houseplants, or cause green fuzzy things to grow in your refrigerator.
— HISTORY: Look for a lot of >>>> marks in the left margin. These marks indicate that people suckered by the hoax have forwarded the message countless times before it has reached you
Fine advice for everyone who uses email. I’m tempted to tell you to send this to everyone you know … but that would be wrong, wouldn’t it?.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment | Categories: Restaurant industry news
Comments
By Andrew
January 8, 2009 3:17 PM | Link to this
there are thousands of these everyday. Why are you reporting this one?By mikey
January 8, 2009 3:21 PM | Link to this
smoke em if ya got emBy Lori
January 8, 2009 3:25 PM | Link to this
Yeah, I agree with Andrew. These hoaxes are a dime a dozen and have been around since email came about. Not news worthy at all.By Anon
January 8, 2009 3:29 PM | Link to this
This one’s been around for a long time…By Rae
January 8, 2009 3:49 PM | Link to this
I think it’s sad that there are people that really think these kind of emails come true! And I’m fine with this article coming out because there are still people (elderly especially) that don’t know this.By P
January 8, 2009 4:00 PM | Link to this
Why is DDN paying an employee to write an article on this? These stupid emails have been around for years. Pass this on to 20 friends and you’ll get a free ringtone.By Pete
January 8, 2009 4:07 PM | Link to this
Perhaps it’s been around a while (Mark even says that) but if there are those (clearly Mark wasn’t aware, and neither was I) that hadn’t heard of it, and on a casual reading might be taken in. Many people would stop reading at “forward this to” but not everyone, so telling them about a problem is what a journalist does.By Publicus
January 8, 2009 4:21 PM | Link to this
Having minored in folklore in college, I can tell you that a fairly large portion of the population believes this sort of stuff. It’s good to report it so people learn not to believe it.By John
January 8, 2009 4:28 PM | Link to this
Seriously, how do people suppose that the originator the e-mail (not the person who sent it to you), has any idea if/who you send it to? Also, I firmly believe that some people see “Forward this…” and just do it. I wonder what would happen if we started one instructing people to “kill 4 friends and you will receive a mcdonalds coupon in the mail” ?By ELF
January 8, 2009 4:31 PM | Link to this
Thanks to these kind of hoaxs legit offers are being looked on as scams. We bought a coupon book last summer with a great offer from Papa Murphey’s Pizza and went to use it. The store told us it was a scam and refused to honor it. I contacted the coupon book company and they contacted Papa Murphey’s who said they couldn’t honor it even if it was legit because of the economy. I guess this is a sign of the times. Even if you got a coupon the place of business won’t have to honor it. I don’t have to do business with the place then either. Wouldn’t that make them go out of business faster?By JuneBug
January 8, 2009 4:37 PM | Link to this
I think think this was very news worthy. Sad but true, there are a lot of people out there that believe this kind of thing, especially teens and elderly people. They might not be aware of it being a hoax. They might not even know what a hoax is. (i.e. teens) Some e-mails are very convincing especially when they offer up any kind of money, gift certificate or free merchandise. Everyone must be aware and we must take a stand to help our elderly and teens understand too. Kudos to you for the article!By Cameron
January 8, 2009 5:15 PM | Link to this
WOW. People still fall for these??By Cameron
January 8, 2009 5:18 PM | Link to this
JuneBug: You’ve got to be kidding me. Teens? I think you mean the 40+ crowd are the people who fall for these. I think anyone younger than 30 is savvy enough to realize that anything that shows up in your inbox offered for free is bogus.By Shane
January 8, 2009 5:25 PM | Link to this
They have the awful disorder called dumfucosity. I’m sorry, but…there is no cure.By Mike G.
January 8, 2009 5:38 PM | Link to this
Wow. New level of low in reporting. This made the front page of the DDN site?By Luck E
January 8, 2009 5:41 PM | Link to this
I don’t need to worry about this hoax. I just won a bezillion dollars in a internet lottery. I just have to mail $3500 to cover legal issues.By souljacker
January 8, 2009 7:19 PM | Link to this
I heard that this was started by corp. officials from Applebees. Great marketing ploy for “getting their name out”.By Jeremy
January 8, 2009 7:25 PM | Link to this
50,000 people have inquired about this hoax email. That’s what makes it newsworthy. And it’s tied to a restaurant and this is the restaurant blog. It’s not like Mark wrote 5000 words about motocross.By John McCain
January 8, 2009 8:39 PM | Link to this
Gosh, them internets sure are complicated! Sarah cant even figure them out and she’s got a Journalism degree!By Hussein
January 8, 2009 9:04 PM | Link to this
Do you think the Nigerian emails promising 10% of 15 million dollars is a hoax too? I was hoping that would help pay for my programs unless I hit the power ball.By eh
January 8, 2009 9:42 PM | Link to this
um…why would anyone in their right mind believe this….use common sense, how would applebees know you sent an email to ANYONE.. sighBy eh
January 8, 2009 9:44 PM | Link to this
Junebug…i’d say 40 and up would believe this garbage…teens wouldn’t buy it for a second. I’ll be Junebug got burned by something like this once and is trying to sound ‘with it’.By John McCain
January 8, 2009 9:58 PM | Link to this
I am the old shriveled-up leader of the party of LOSERS. We STILL can’t figure out why we lost! I’m sure it cant be the fat racist repugs like hussien. Naw. Ive got a BIG um, truck.