No, Amazon is not gifting laptops to people aged 40 or over

Posts on Facebook claim that the retailer Amazon is “handing out” or gifting laptops to people aged 40 and over in the UK. 

This is false. An Amazon spokesperson has confirmed the supposed offers are not genuine.

One post claims “Amazon decided to make a gift HP Pavilion laptop 15’ to everyone over the age of 40 because a batch of laptop was left without boxes due to an error at the sorting center [sic]”, while another says “Amazon is handing out laptops from 2022 - 2024 to seniors aged 40 and up in the UK”, adding: “This program supports older adults in staying connected and active online while clearing space for newer items.”

Both posts encourage Facebook users to engage with the post. One tells people to “click below to find out how to get your laptop”, while the other says “click the button below and answer a few easy questions to see if you’re eligible for a laptop!”. 

Both posts use the same image—of piles of what appear to be HP laptops, unboxed and stacked on a carpet— but with one crucial difference. While one of the posts shows only the laptops, the other includes an image of a woman wearing a yellow vest and gesturing towards the laptops. She appears to have been added digitally to the picture. 

Both posts include a link to the same website, which tells viewers they have “the chance to win a HP laptop for only £3” and encourages them to “take a survey to confirm that you’re a real person”. But crucially, despite the webpage containing an image of the Amazon logo in its top left corner, its URL does not match that of the real Amazon website. 

A third post uses slightly different wording and a different picture but makes similar claims and links to a website which appears similar. 

We’ve not been able to find these deals on Amazon’s real website, and have found no evidence they are real. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Full Fact that these are “not genuine” ads and they do not “come from Amazon”. 

These posts are similar to others we’ve seen before falsely claiming that Amazon was either giving away or selling electronics for very low prices. 

It is always worth checking posts sharing offers that seem too good to be true. One way to verify them is to check whether the offer has been shared by the company’s official page, which will often have more followers, a verified blue tick on platforms like Facebook or Instagram, and a longer post history.