Competition Scams - Please Post Them Here

[Deleted User]

Thanks everyone for your input.

Due to the large cash sums and gadgets, cars etc., that ITV give away in conjunction with the companies involved. People now understand that competition prize values are weighed up against the exposure and advertising/marketing costs and that it actually makes more financial sense for companies to do this rather than advertise in the traditional ways. Especially as so many people now use Sky plus, iplayer and adblockers to avoid adverts on TV.

More and more companies are running competitions as the internet becomes a way of life and I'm sure that many intelligent and rational people who have never done more than the odd competition before, are now seeing them frequently enough to take notice and think they'll give it a go.
Such people may have had little reason to be aware of scams and presume there to be some legalities preventing blatant lying.

People nowadays have so much going on in their lives and so much to learn and be aware of that it may just be an area they haven't encountered before. This especially applies to young people with little life experience. It doesn't mean they are irrational or stupid, just that they can't be expected to know everything about everything - Or indeed have the time to research everything, before making decisions about what appears to be innocent fun. Most folk have their own specific areas of expertise which you and I may know very little about.

I get the impression there are a lot of young mums, trying to make ends meet who are tempted to do competitions while the children are having a nap and they have a precious 5 minutes to themselves. They don't have time to analyse and I expect they don't have time to think about whether they need to.

I think it's great that there are forums such as this where those with experience are willing to help people through the maze, until they find their feet.

I am far from naive and have encountered much in both my personal and working life. If anything, I tend to err on the side of caution, but it was news to me, that there was a market for Facebook pages. I know there are a lot of chancers out there, but life is so complex now that I have had to give up trying to second guess just HOW thousands of scams might work.

I will be sure to pass on this new information to those, who like me, have until this week had too much else on their minds to ponder whether that may be the case.

Thank you again to those who have supplied links and objective information. I appreciate your time.

sleepyjones

Someone else posted about this, but just had a call from a startup magazine based in Swansea who I had applied for £20 worth of fuel gift cards. He did the whole speel about sending the vouchers out and sending me an introductory copy of the magazine for free, then something about £75 a year ... I guess this is if you don't cancel the subscription after you get the first issue. He then asked for £1, I think to go towards posting the vouchers. I remember reading about this on the forum and the person asked them to just take it off the £20 fuel vouchers, to which they replied it was against company policy. I tried the same tact and got the response "What do you want me to do, just rip a corner off one of the vouchers?" ... "I won't ask for your security number or even the bank your with, I just need the long number on the card and the end date" ... so I thought, Is this supposed to make me feel better?, if you can take £1 with those details then you can take £100 or presumably £1000 ... told them to get stuffed anyway, remember folks ... if something sounds too good to be true (ie £20 fuel vouchers for £1), then it probably is!

CheCazzo

Yes sleepyjones - and for anyone who doesn't quite believe you or doesn't think you were right to take that line with them - proceed directly to the 'Praise, Vents, Warnings' section of MSE Forums and read about the poor people scammed by the Raspberry Ketone people. They also thought they were giving their card numbers to pay £4.95 postage. That, and the sometimes nearly £200 that went west from their accounts at the same time. Read it and learn!

mjm3346

Won a BMW (not)

Dear Winner,

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a prize of a brand new 2014 Model BMW 7 Series Car and a Check of $500,000.00 USD from the international balloting programs held in the UNITED STATE OF AMERICA.

The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection system (ESS) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world which you were selected.

The BMW Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also Licensed by the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). To begin the processing of your prize you are to contact our fiduciary claims department for more information as regards procedures to the claim of your prize.

Moneybot

Looks like another fake Disney page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Disney-Land-Paris/713308608718512

Great news! We're giving you and 50 other people the opportunity to win an all paid for 2 week Holiday to Disney Land for 5 people on a date of your choice with £2,500 spending money!

To enter just Share & Like this video (comment to double your chances)

Really a like and share?

VelvetGlove

hannonle wrote: »

I reported them to FB.

Another poster had said about doing it and her comment was deleted.
I posted about possibly reporting to ASA/IPM and my comment was deleted.
The winning notification post we both commented on has now been locked to further comments.

I think this site needs to be put on the banned list.

lilias wrote: »

If you think this should be added to the banned list you need to contact VelvetGlove and explain the problem. She relies on people letting her know about dodgy companies.

Hi both

I dont' have anything in the Comping Guide for sites that members feel should be banned, just ones that are likely to lead to spam and ones that don't want their comp/answer posted.

The IPM or the ASA are who you should be contacting if you believe that these are bogus competitions. They have the power to stop and fine the company concerned if your allegations are true.

If you want to get the company name/url blocked on MSE then you should be contacting the Forum Team.

Thanks

SuzieTheCat

Like HBJ&W Solicitors

Like & Share this Post

The prizes shall be as follows:
* first prize shall be a stay for 2 in Florida. Winner will win flights, hotel and 2 tickets to Disney World;


If anyone requires a plus 1 I'd be happy to oblige :rotfl:

The end date is 1st of May 2015 & and you must be over 18 to enter.

claire21

The maximum number of entries for the competition is 3. Once 3 entries have been received, the competition will be closed to new entries, notwithstanding the closing date specified below.

???

Moneybot

claire21 wrote: »

The maximum number of entries for the competition is 3. Once 3 entries have been received, the competition will be closed to new entries, notwithstanding the closing date specified below.

???

It's very badly worded given they are a firm of solicitors. I think you are meant to read that bit in conjunction with the bit above

"The maximum number of entries per individual.

The maximum number of entries for the competition is 3. Once 3 entries have been received, the competition will be closed to new entries, notwithstanding the closing date specified below."

hollymarierose

SuzieTheCat wrote: »

Like HBJ&W Solicitors

Like & Share this Post

The prizes shall be as follows:
* first prize shall be a stay for 2 in Florida. Winner will win flights, hotel and 2 tickets to Disney World;


If anyone requires a plus 1 I'd be happy to oblige :rotfl:

The end date is 1st of May 2015 & and you must be over 18 to enter.

This was exposed as a scam on another competition website, someone asked for more details on the prize before they listed the T&C's and the company sent a abusive reply.

The whole thing seems dodgy as they post a lot of inappropriate meme's on there page, why would solicitor's do that? I recall one image was of someone who messed themselves and had flies flying around there bum!