Free PS3

The 28 day free PS3

The Beginnings

Theoretical research for device physics of organic electronic devices tends to happen for me in spurts. I sit down and think, then write and then get stuck. It is a continuous cycle that last about an hour then with a 30 minute or so break. It was during one of these breaks and an obligatory perusing of facebook that, one Thursday afternoon, I noticed a small sponsored advert in the marketplace, it was for a Sony Playstation 3 and the price read “Free”. Both bored and intrigued I clicked the ad to see what the catch was. Now most facebook users will now be familiar with these ads as they have gone completely viral over the last few weeks/months but this was the first time I had come across one. It claimed that I could get a free PS3 by referring friends to a site, it contained two links, one to a site where I was to sign up and the other to a youtube video it claimed as “evidence”. I’m a natural cynic and along with my cynicism comes a lot of scepticism so naturally, with a pinch of salt, I viewed the youtube video. The video was a montage of various clips from BBC newsnight and CNN explaining the “free iPods” craze I had heard of but never really paid much attention to. The video seemed credible and I decided to click the other link in the article and view the site where I was to sign up. I was directed to a site for the giveaway network, a professional looking site with the claim of a 60Gb PS3 for referring 13 friends. At this point I was genuinely intrigued by the nature of this scheme, fuelled by the fact I had been contemplating a PS3 for a while but could not justify the enormous price tag. I decided to throw caution to the wind and sign up for free to see what the deal was. I entered all the usual particulars and activated the account, at this point I was presented with a page full of banners for affiliate sites, this was the list of “offers”, the picture of the scheme was becoming more apparent now so I decided to thoroughly study the T’s&C’s. Here is a breakdown of what I learned from the terms of use. I had signed up to the site and in order to claim my PS3 I had to complete a series of tasks. Firstly I had to complete one of the “offers” myself, they ranged from a free 14 day DVD rental trial to placing a £5 bet with coral.co.uk. After this I was required to get 13 people to sign up through my referral link and all complete an “offer” themselves. There were also a few more important points of note in the terms of use. My referrals all had to have unique postal and ip addresses and spamming of the referral link was allowed. For the time being I left it there and returned home.

I spent the journey home considering how this site could possibly work as a business and whether it could possibly be a scam. I figured that for every person that completes an offer the network must get paid a fee and that 13 of these fees must cover the cost of the console with a bit left over. On further thought I realised that there must be a lot of people who complete an offer but then never get enough referrals to claim a console, therefore the network gets paid but doesn’t have to pay out and finally there are people who may get 13+ referrals meaning there are spare ones for the network to pocket. At this point I was beginning to get excited and my brain was working overtime, I turned to Google for answers. I did a little research into the “freebie scene” and found a forum called exceem. To my astonishment there was a large community of people that regularly claimed free items from various networks on the web and the congregated at exceem to discuss various referral methods and to show off their free gear. I even found a gallery of photos of members and their free items, it was huge. That was it, I was hooked and determined to get in on some of the action.

I went straight back to the giveaway site, signed in and proceeded through the corals banner and opened an account. I deposited £5 a played their Deal or No Deal game and won £40, I was made up! My head was full of thoughts of this free PS3 and how easy it would be to get 13 people to do exactly what I had just done. But first it was back to exceem for some thorough research, all the while checking back to the giveaway site to see if my offer had credited or, as I now knew the lingo “gone green”.

In the few hours that passed browsing posts I got a real feel for what the scene was like, it was great! To my amazement the owners of the networks posted messages on the forum directly interacting with their members, answering questions, running competitions, it was incredible to me. I found a post that was a resume of free items that members had received, the grand total off RRP’s was over £65,000 and they had stopped adding to the post. I could feel myself getting sucked in further and further, members had their own websites promoting their referral links and all kinds of secret methods, some of the referral numbers they were generating were ridiculous. A few hours later my offer had “gone green”, I had my link and now it was time to use it, it was late so I decided to leave until the morning.

The Referral Drive

I began to compile a list of folk that I would get to do the referral for me, all different ip and postal addresses, it was going to be a breeze, I had many more than 13 on the list. Of course I failed to remember how, in the early minutes after reading the ad, I myself had been extremely sceptical and it took a lot of reading before I was ready to believe. I exhausted myself explaining the scheme to people I knew and bugging them to complete and offer for me and after going through the list I had 4/13 greens and some yellows *yellows are people who have signed up through the referral link but have yet to complete an offer*. After venturing back to exceem it seemed like 4 greens for one days work was actually pretty good going for a noob. I decided to run a different ploy, I realised that I had some money from the coral offer and I could give people £5 to use on coral as long as they do it through my link! Back to the list! Over the next few days I got round to a few people on the list and offered them the fiver to play on corals, it worked for a few more greens.

I tried to break it down for people to this

So in easy steps, claim your Free PS3 by,

1. Sign up, enter your email address here.

2. Complete one of the offers on the freebie site such as the LOVEFiLM free Trial or £5 coral offer..

3. Refer friends and family to do the same.

4. Claim your Free PS3.

It was now a week since I had signed up to the site and I was chuffed, I had 8/13 greens and I was convinced the PS3 would be mine by the end of the month (it was early October). As a note of the procedure, once you have the required number of referrals you submit your account to the network for verification, during this process which occurs roughly every two weeks, they study you referrals and look for any signs of fraud. When the account is verified you can order your console and they are sent out in bulk at the end of the month. I had learned through exceem that the next verification was Sunday 14th October, I had a target to aim for!

With verification roughly a week away I needed to get the remaining referrals and the people I knew were stalling over it, then I remembered how I had signed up, Facebook marketplace. So I put together a nice shiny advert and put it in the free section. To my amazement I started to get a lot of referrals, but only yellows. I left the ad there for a few days and a few of the yellows turned green (after I emailed them all with a little explanation). I was approaching my target and by the time Saturday rolled around (day before verification) I had 11/13 greens, it was going to be nail biting! I must add at this point that there is no deadline to get the referrals, in fact there was another verification day before the items were due to be sent out that month, I was just caught up in it and impatient. It was the day of the Rugby world cup semi final and England were due to play France, I knew a couple of guys interested in the rugby and figured they might want a bet on the game. I sent them a few texts’s and emails but I heard nothing. The game came around and I was pretty glum because I was stuck on 11/13 greens and I figured I’d have to wait another week to be verified. England went onto win the game in a surprise upset and then I got a couple of texts along the lines of “Glad I put that bet on for ya, quids in now!” I rushed to the giveaway site and low and behold 13/13, a majestic button appeared at the top of the screen reading “verify account” I hastily clicked it and the page refreshed to read “congratulations you have completed the requirements for your Free 60Gb PS3, the next verification will take place on Sunday October 14th”. Roll on Sunday!

Verification day part 1

As mentioned earlier, once you submit your account for verification, the network staff will look at all your referrals and cross check them for any discrepancies that there may be. If any of your referrals have broken the terms of use then their account is placed “on hold” and you lose their referral subject to support ticket appeals, either way you will have to wait until next verification day and try again with new or extra greens.

So Sunday came around, it was tense, I was checking every 5 minutes to see if it had been done, from what I had read on exceem, it was a long process and not likely to be done until that evening. I tried to occupy myself but I was too worried about the verification, it was a real buzz. Evening set in and about 8 o’clock people on exceem were reporting that their accounts had been verified and orders placed. I was back checking every 5 minutes and then eventually around 9pm I refreshed the page and it had changed, I now had 11/13 referrals, Disaster! 2 had gone on hold, I was distraught. After much swearing and panicking I composed myself and examined the situation, the 2 referrals that had been placed on hold were friends of mine, they were sisters in fact. It turns out that instead of using their respective university addresses, they had both used the same home address and hence violated the terms of use. I was upset for a while, but all was not lost, there was another verification day before the delivery date and I had plenty of time to replace the 2 referrals I had lost.

Back to it

I had the freebie fever now and I was so convinced I would get the PS3 by the end of the month I started thinking about my next freebie. I decided to build a website, www.free-games-consoles.co.uk and publish my own freebie site on the web. But without search engine rankings which take time it was pretty useless as a way of generating referrals just yet so I had to find the last two on my own. It was tricky because of the failed verification people I knew were suspicious and unconvinced by my remonstrations, even those I had pointed in the direction of exceem.
The verification day was closing in and I had only had one more referral turn green, it was one of the previous yellows. In fact it was the day before and I still needed one and just like bus’ 3 came along at once, I had 15/13 referrals so for verification day, 2 could have gone on hold and I still would get the consoles, I was uber confident now.

Verification day part 2

Even though I had 2 spare referrals I was still edgy, if the account wasn’t verified today I would have to wait another month to get the console and would face ridicule from all the people I had hyped it up to. There was a moment a sheer relief when I refreshed the page at about 10pm and saw the words “Congratulations you account has been verified, you may now place your order”. I clicked the order button and the site confirmed delivery would be on 30th October. I had just over a week to wait. The added bonus of receiving the console would be that people would now believe me and the referrals for my next freebie would flood in.

One final hiccup

The week leading up to the delivery was just after the postal strike and the Liverpool posties were still on strike. The console was due to be sent next day through a courier so this wasn’t really a problem. There was a bit of a wind up on exceem when a member claimed that the courier, ANC, were going out on strike in sympathy of the posties, had me for a minute. Then on the morning of delivery I checked exceem before I went into the office, I noticed a post from the owner of the giveaway network, Tab. It said that there was actually a problem with the courier and the console would be a day late, I must admit I was a little worried. I was set to be a laughing stock that day if I anyone asked where it was, I laid low and luckily nobody mentioned it.

Result

After the last minute scare 1st November 2007 became a day I won’t forget and the day I realised that you really can get cool things for free. ANC delivered on time, a brand new 60Gb PS3 complete with Motorstorm and Heavenly sword.

Everyone was shocked, even though I was so confident, nobody actually believed it could be done, but I had proved it.

It was a hell of a rollercoaster and quite frankly it was an amazingly fun and rewarding one. I snapped a photo of myself with the console and uploaded to the website, you can see it below.

I also used the photo in an email I sent to all the referrals I had, including the yellows, in it I included my next freebie referral link. Believe it or not I generated 4 greens from this for the next site. I quite fancy a Wii for 8 referrals, or the Amazon voucher equivalent that it will be seeing as Wii’s are sold out.

So there is my story and I hope I have provided enough useful information both in this article and on the site for you to claim your own free gift.

The best thing to do is to research it for yourself, I recommend a large community of freebie hunters at exceem. There are plenty of friendly folk there with adviceand a large gallery of pictures.

Click the item of your choice on the right and claim your gift now.

I have recieved my Free PS3 from the giveaway network, I achieved the referrals, had it verified and delivered in less than a month, so it can be done. Check out the photo of my Freebie in the Gallery.

Check out the tips section for all you need to claim your free PS3 or the freebie of your choice.

Good Luck

PS3 delivers the next generation of interactive entertainment. Enjoy Blu-ray Disc movies, cutting edge High Definition games, easy music, video and photo storage, free access to PLAYSTATION®Network and much more.

Your Free PS3 will be packed with everything you'd expect from an entertainment system and makes High Definition entertainment more accessible to all.

PS3 Games

Sony have raised the bar with their Nex-Gen gaming console. The PS3 offers the pinnacle of High Definition gaming with titles such as, Resistance:Fall of man, Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. All rendered in stunning progressive scan High Definition and in amazing surround sound, by claiming your Free PS3 you will treat yourself to the to the ultimate gaming experience.

HD Video

Your Free PS3 is not just about the games, it hosts a Blu-ray Disc player plus a large HDD to store all your files.

The Playstation 3 has a Blu-ray Disc drive as standard. Watching your favourite films in true High Definition is a joy. With a massive capacity on each disc, allowing up to three hours of HD video plus nine hours of Standard Definition (SD) bonus material to be stored on one double layer Blu-ray Disc, you'll be sure of no disc-swapping interruptions.

Network

the PS3 is all about connectivity, interaction and the content and services offered by PLAYSTATION®Network.

The Network category on the Home Menu is where you'll find some of the PLAYSTATION 3 system's most innovative features. As well as a link to the online Instruction Manuals, Network connects your PS3 to your PSP, and takes you online to the wide world of the Internet and all the exciting content in the PLAYSTATION® Store.

Network is where you'll find Remote Play so you can experience the power of PS3, including all your saved photos, music and movies, in the palm of your hand on PSP.

PS3 Technical Specs

PS3
CPU Cell Processor	PowerPC-base Core @3.2GH 1 VMX vector unit per core 512KB L2 cache 7 x processors * 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS
GPU	RSX @550MHz 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
Sound	Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing) Memory
System Bandwidth	System Bandwidth Main RAM 25.6GB/s VRAM 22.4GB/s RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read) SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)
System Floating Point Performance	2 TFLOPS
Storage	Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1
I/O	USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0) Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1 SD standard/mini x 1 CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1
Communication	Ethernet Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
Controller	Bluetooth (up to 7) USB 2.0 (wired) Wi-Fi (PSP) Network (over IP)
A/V Output	Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p HDMI: HDMI out x 2 Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1 Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
Disc Media	Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE

Free stuff, like a free xbox or free PS3 is a reality on the web via freebie networks click the free item of your choice. There is growing freebie comunity all claiming free stuff every week, it really is a win win situation for all involed so spread the word and help the freebie community to grow. See the Gallery for my Free PS3.

Good Luck hunting all that free stuff.