Readers Digest Prize Draw is it a con?

mitcho_uk · 29 December 2005 at 2:36PM

Well I have recieved my letter this morning telling me that I am in with a chance of winning £250,000.

Is this a con?

Whats the catch?

How and why have I been invited?

Is it worth sending the numbers back?

Why dont they just send the numbers in the same envelope as the letter to notify me that i have been selected?

black-saturn · 29 December 2005 at 8:45PM

mitcho_uk wrote:

Is this a con?

Yes it is a con. They only want to send you loads of books you dont want. Everyone I know has got one so how can they all have won?

GoofyGAT · 6 January 2006 at 12:04AM

Apparently someone's uncle won - see
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1253203#post1253203. G

franney · 6 January 2006 at 1:12AM

Well, as you don't need to subscribe to anything to enter the prize draw it can't be all that bad. I sent ours back in the NO envelope, better to try than chuck it away and wonder and it doesn't cost anything.. shame i won't get that Jag though

beachhutman · 7 March 2006 at 2:59PM

I don't believe it, and I don't know why that story would appear on the forum. I have done local press searches for the names the RD publishes as winners in my part of the country, and not one of them has featured on their local papers' websites or archives. Yet it is supposed to be about promoting RD. If you google their names and "winner" or "wins", you'll only get the RD website or something about sending out cheap "gifts". Same in America, no actual cash prize winners can be located. No press coverage, no local news, no TV. "Publicity for Rd"? Nope, it's a scam.

carly · 7 March 2006 at 3:01PM

I sent back these "lucky numbers " for years and years. Never won as much as a sausage.

beachhutman · 7 March 2006 at 3:08PM

I live with an aged relative who has spent maybe thousands of pounds on books she neither wants nor needs. They still tell her she is a "finalist". It is outright deception, and conforms to all the styles and habitd of the worst scams, sending out "last notice" and "Immediate" mailings as soon as you reply to one of their letters, and encouraging you to think you REALLY need to order, while actually saying you don't. They are not even selling good value books! Try selling any on EBay!

kenshaz · 7 March 2006 at 3:18PM

Yes they need investigating,take out an annual subscription and they bombard you with promises and one letter after another with no end,watch out because they renew your subscription without contacting you ,then you get a bill after a couple of copies.

SambaRamba · 9 March 2006 at 7:02PM

Hi, im not so sure if it is a scam, although the competitions they run are designed to make you think you're in with a better chance of winning if you buy from/subscribe to them. I always enter but never give RD a penny of my money. Apparantly a few years back Which did a report that said a supprisingly few number of people actually respond to the competitions that RD run so the odds of winning are quite high (this info was passed to me by my mother). There's no harm in entering.........you never know!

LookingAhead · 25 March 2006 at 3:50PM

Heloo...new person to Comps board here.....

Had to say:

My Mum won £1000 from Readers Digest about 5 years ago....

Since then I always send back the replies but I don't buy anything else apart from the main subscription as I like some of the little articles in the monthly pamphlet thing (and I only bought the subscription on special offer!)

Vital_Spark_2 · 31 March 2006 at 1:33AM

black-saturn wrote:

Yes it is a con. They only want to send you loads of books you dont want. Everyone I know has got one so how can they all have won?

I always thought the same regarding the Readers Digest comps but my friend's aunt won £52 thousand from them so I was converted.

Now I'm a bungalow.... or should that be bunged-below?????????

Readers Digest Prize Draw is it a con?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free