Amazon is not ‘giving away’ laptops to the over-40s

Multiple posts on Facebook falsely claim that online retailer Amazon is “giving away” laptops for £5 to UK residents aged over 40.

One post, which includes an image of a man seemingly standing beside stacks of HP branded laptops piled up on the floor, says: “Amazon is giving away last year's leftover laptops to seniors for less than £5! This gesture is a thank you for their contributions and helps support people over 40 in the United Kingdom. Answer a few simple questions to see if you qualify for this laptop worth at least £250!”

A spokesperson from Amazon told Full Fact that the offers in the posts are “not legitimate”.

Several similar posts include a link to a website which features the Amazon logo in the top left corner, but the URL does not match that of the genuine Amazon website. Visitors are asked to answer three simple questions confirming they live in the UK, have purchased items from Amazon in the past and want to be entered in the prize draw. They are then given an opportunity to take part in a guessing game before being asked to enter personal details in order to have the laptop delivered.

Posts offering fake deals are very common on Facebook, and we’ve fact checked many similar ones previously from Amazon and other retailers.

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