Viral emails are a great method of marketing, but before you try them out for yourself be sure to carefully consider what you’re doing. Persimmon Homes didn’t, and an email sent out by them last week caused their entire network to go down for over a week.
If you received this email below, it was a hoax, ignore it. Do not forward it or reply to it. The person who originated this must feel pretty damn stupid right now.
From: **********
Sent: 04 June 2007 11:32
To: ************
Subject: FW: Marks & Spencer vouchers
Marks & Spencers, in conjunction with Persimmon Homes, are giving away free vouchers.
Marks & Spencers are trying word-of-mouth advertising to introduce its products and the reward you receive for advertising for them is free non-refundable vouchers to be used in any M&S store.
To receive your free vouchers by e-mail all you have to do is to send this email out to 8 people (for 100GBP of free vouchers) or 20 people (for 500GBP of free vouchers).
Within 2 weeks you will receive an e-mail with your vouchers attached.
They will contact you through your e-mail address.
Please mark a copy to: ******@persimmonhomes.com
Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.
