Hoax email brings false hope of vouchers

CYPRUS has been hit by a hoax email campaign, with a bogus message promising up to £500 in Marks and Spencer vouchers to anybody who forwards the e-mail to 20 friends.
The hoax says that M&S were working in conjunction with Persimmon Homes on a word of mouth advertising campaign to promote M&S’s products and services.

Persimmon posted a statement on its website confirming that the voucher offer is a hoax.
It states: “A hoax email is being circulated offering a promotion of free Marks and Spencer vouchers for forwarding the email to colleagues and friends.

“Neither Marks and Spencer nor Persimmon Homes have made any such promotional offer. Please delete the hoax email and notify the people to whom you have sent it that it is a hoax.”
The message says that the vouchers would only be sent if recipients cc’d their emails to a Persimmon Homes employee. A spokesperson for Persimmon Homes confirmed that the person named in the letter did exist.

The employee is said to have turned on his Out of Office autoreply in response to the thousands of unwanted emails.

When asked to comment, Marks & Spencer headquarters in Nicosia yesterday declined.

The hoax email

“Dear all,
Marks & Spencers, in conjunction with Persimmon Homes, are giving away free vouchers. M&S 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 £100 of free vouchers) or 20 people (for £500 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”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.