..the only problem is that they have your private information and can sell it to companies which will spam you themselves.

yeah, these cant all be completely fake, just hard to do, or they have some nasty catch. and thats why i consider most of these to be scams.

the only thing i havent seen as a scam was the MP3.com FreeCD deal that happened many years back. At first i didnt believe it, so i never signed up for it, but when i heard that it was completely legit, i signed up for it. Of course the CD is loaded with a ton of free obscure music, but its free.
Whenever the CD wouldn't come within the estimated shipment time, i would sign up a second time (sometimes i signed up more than that :o yet i still got all of the cds some time later.

The *BEST* deal i got from those mp3.com CDs was a free headset from VisiTalk :)
The deal was that you have to be 18+ to get it, and that you have to pay for shipping, but if you look at the form there's no place for them to charge you, so its either completely free or you dont get it at all. I, of course, signed up even tho i wasnt 18, a month or so later I got a free CD shrinkwrapped onto a box. I opened the box, and BAM! There was a *FREE* Labtec headset ($15 value) and i didnt pay a damn penny. Too bad i only signed up once, i thought that if i signed up more than that i would jeopardize my free headset (it claimed limit 1 per household).

ok my rant is done. :P