The 2009 'You've Won a Free iPad' email that actually worked out

So I was going through my old Yahoo inbox from college and found this spam from 2009 promising a free iPad if I clicked a link and filled out a survey. Obviously I thought it was a scam, but back then I was bored and broke, so I clicked it anyway. The survey asked about my favorite pizza toppings and if I owned a pet iguana, which was so dumb it almost felt real. A month later a package showed up at my dorm with a knockoff tablet that had a cracked screen and a sticker that said 'iPad Pro 1'. It didn't work, but the fact that they actually shipped me something physical was hilarious. I still have the box in my closet as a reminder that even the sketchiest email can deliver, just not what you expect. Has anyone else ever gotten a weird physical item from a spam email, or did I just hit the jackpot of bad decisions?

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betty14424d agoMost Upvoted

Mine was a "free" webcam from a fake Best Buy survey in 2011. It showed up as a lumpy plastic brick that looked like it had been chewed on by a dog and then glued back together. The lens was just a flat sticker, but the package had real shipping tape and a return address in Ohio, so props for the effort. I kept it on my shelf for years as proof that spam could be weirdly generous, just not in a useful way.