A `free' iPhone offer? There might be hang-ups

The Apple iPhone isn't out yet, and already there are websites offering it "FREE!"

On the Internet, however, there are different degrees of free.

This one will cost you. And you might never get the prize.

The iPhone deals follow the same pattern as previous online free schemes, the Council of Better Business Bureaus warns. They promise high-ticket cellphones, iPods, laptop computers and high-definition televisions to those who fulfill a complex, sometimes expensive set of requirements.

Often, it ends badly.

"Some consumers actually do make it through the marketing gantlet and get their 'free iPod,' " Steve Cox, a council vice president, said in the nonprofit organization's warning. "But we've heard from consumers who spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours but never got the goods."

Jimmie Lee Zwissler was one of those who gave it a try. In late December, the 57-year-old registered nurse from Fairfax, Calif., came across a site offering the exact cellphone, complete with Internet access, that she wanted.

Many people who try these types of sites give up long before getting the prize.

But not Zwissler. The "free" site had met its match.

"I have a strong sense of right and wrong," she said. "They got me burned; they got me mad. But that only made me more determined.

"I wanted that phone, and I was not going to pay for it."

Her saga took nearly six months to play out.

The site she went up against was www.reward-path.com, which was offering a Cingular 8525 phone.

Zwissler didn't know it at the time, but she wasn't the first to have trouble with the site and others owned by Niutech, headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla.

In fact, after receiving hundreds of complaints, Florida Atty. Gen. Bill McCollum opened an investigation into the company (now called TheUseful), issuing the first round of subpoenas in November for information about its practices.

"We are investigating their marketing procedures," said Sandi Copes, McCollum's press secretary, "looking at their failure to conspicuously disclose all terms and conditions for obtaining the promotional gifts."

The investigation, for which former employees were subpoenaed for sworn statements, is continuing. On Thursday the company and its founder, Niuniu Ji, were served with a third round of subpoenas for information.

Though the approximately 500 complaints about Niutech that went to the Better Business Bureau eventually were resolved, the bureau rated the company "unsatisfactory."