Being offered an incentive to get your friends onto Skype is a bit like being offered a bung to win the World Cup.

From today until 19 October – that’s one month in old money – you’ll get 30 minutes of free SkypeOut calls to landlines, just for persuading three friends to download Skype. (Of course, once they’re all on Skype you won’t need any SkypeOut freebies, unless you plan to start ringing up complete strangers. And you know what Mummy told you about that.)

And there’s more! Yes, those incentives just keep on giving. When your three referred mates sign up, you’re all entered into a prize draw to win a Sony Vaio FE31H laptop with integrated camera and mic, 20 Philips VOIP321 cordless phones and 52 Logitech QuickCam Express webcams. Not all at once.

The small print: To refer a friend, use this online form. As soon as your three mates have signed up, you’ll get an email containing a voucher code for your SkypeOut freebie. You’ll then get an email with details of the competition draw. If you don’t win the Vaio, don’t come crying to me.