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Origins: So many bogus something for nothing promises gain wide circulation on the Internet that it was almost amusing to see one that was actually true yet largely ignored. Gullible netizens have been forwarding endless variations of the Bill Gates e-mail tracking hoax back and forth for years, but when there was a real opportunity to collect $20 simply by spending a few seconds entering some information into a web site, the public was largely been too skeptical to try it, thinking the whole thing must have been some kind of scam. For years consumers have been complaining about the relatively high prices of CDs (because they were generally priced much higher than vinyl records, even though they were just as cheap, if not cheaper, to manufacture). Finally someone did something about it: 41 states filed suit against five CD distributors and three music retailers, charging that the companies had conspired to fix minimum prices for CDs. In September 2002 the parties agreed to settle the lawsuit, and one of the terms of the settlement was that the companies agreed to reimburse customers who purchased music products between 1995 and 2000 by paying out a total of about $44 million in refunds. Anyone who bought a CD (or a record or a cassette) between 1995 and 2000 was eligible to claim his portion of the settlement by signing up before 3 March 2003; not even a receipt is necessary. Consumers could simply go to the CD MAP Settlement site, click on the link for filing a claim, and supply the requested information. Many people balked at having to supply several items of personal information (home addresses, birth dates, and the last four digits Social Security numbers), fearing the site was a data-collecting scam, but the information was necessary in order to distribute the payment checks and ensure that no one filed more than one claim. Update: The distribution of refund checks for up to $13.86 per person began on 20 February 2004.
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