We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Competition Scams - Please Post Them Here
Options
Comments
-
Went to google through normal web browser and landed on a page telling me I'd been selected to complete a short survey to win an iPad2, iPhone 4 or a HP Notebook. Did the survey, only asked for my email address so I thought "why not?". Ended up on a planet49 landing page, asking me for my mobile number to answer 10 questions via text to win. Didn't bother at that point, but have since been emailed with the below:
Hello xxxxxx!
Congratulations - You are our possible winner! We are happy to announce that you are one of our lucky selected few to win an Apple iPad 2:
1. Name of someone else
2. My Name
3. Name of someone else
Click Here!
When I click, it lands me on another planet49 web address asking me for my postcode. Didn't enter - not worth it - seems they're scamming people on text messages already, not going to give them my postal address!
I got one of these today, and my name was 2nd in the list...just ignored it, but don't know why they have my email!0 -
Hi everybody, i'm new here! I started entering competitions last week (thankyou to everybody who posts comps & answers!) & i'm usually very careful about giving my details out. I made a new email address just to use for comping & any junk mail which may come along with it. However, most of the competitions require a mobile number & since entering these competitions i've been recieving around 8 calls a day! One of the numbers is +8000521505, at first i kept missing the calls so i never answered but today i answered it & it was somebody from "vodafone" wanting to tell me about some great deals, i told him i wasn't interested & he said "but danielle you won't even let me tell you about these great deals!!" so i just put the phone down on him. Im not even with vodafone & i think the call came from abroad. I've also been getting some calls from a blocked number but i haven't answered it, has anybody else been getting any calls???2012 - £350.88
£2013 in 2013 Challenge £1969.98/£2013
A-Z Challenge -ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
2013 Best wins - iPhone 5c, £100 Iceland Vouchers, £500 spend at BoBelle London, Beats Pill.
0 -
I would like to start off by thanking everyone on this site for their knowledge and expertise in the comping world.
I received this email today, and I couldn't believe my luck, I like many others have entered so many competitions it's hard to keep check on them all.
But after reading a lot of the posts in this thread I have come to expect this to be a scam.
I have not replied to the email or phoned the number, even though it is tempting. Can someone just reassure me this is a scam?
TIA.
PEPSI BOTTLING COMPANY PLC
Your email has won £500,000.00 POUNDS (Five Hundred Thousand Pounds) from Pepsi online promotions2011,send your Full names, Age, Sex,Occupation,Phone and Address to the Promotion Manager at manager-pepsi@live.co.uk for claims. Tel: +447011150911Thanks to all Posters !
GBBO TEAM IAN0 -
150% Scam
As well as a ludicrously large prize which would of been the talk of the site and you would have remembered entering, the email address is live.co.uk is from hotmail and a mobile number, no named contact, no congratulations, they would have your name from entering.........
Classic junk spam!:hello:0 -
Thanks, my bubble has burst, but it's helped me to take more notice of the contents of emails.
thanks for speedy reply.Thanks to all Posters !
GBBO TEAM IAN0 -
Very confused - got a green envelope posted through the door on Friday only opened it today.
And it states....
That £100,000 is up for grabs for me - I just have to reply to an orange tracked post envelope that will be coming through my door in the next 72 hours????
All seems very strange - not an obvious win....
Just looked up their website and it seems more legit
www.readersdigest.co.uk/prizedraw
It addressed to me in name and letter is personalised to my name and address.
Anyone else have experience of this?
I would be very wary of Readers Digest to be honest.
Have a look at this website Think Jessica It's junk mail and when you respond to these things you get added to a "suckers list" and the scam mail just increases.Striving to clear the mortgage before it finishes in Dec 2028 - amount currently owed - £26,322.670 -
I fell for this one so completely, I phoned to claim my money. I have been shopping with Damart for 15 years - no more if this is what they think of their customers. I was sent very official looking paperwork with bank transfer and everything matched up to show I had won £1000. The relatively small amount made it seem even more genuine and I even told my husband when he came in. An amount of very useful money to cover some recent expenses.
It was only when I was on the phone to customer services to make my claim that I noticed in tiny print, that the signature of the Managing Director I needed was in fact the signature of the Marketing Director.
I am used to the Damart, fooled you, style draw prizes, fake cheques etc. This was so deliberately made to look genuine.
I have complained twice to Damart, asking them why they do this and stating I will no longer shop with them, written to You and Yours, BBC.
So, far, just an email from Dmt to say my complaint was passed to a team -
they lost a long term customer, so what is the point??? still waiting:D0 -
Once upon a time, Friday the 9th Sept to be exact after one of those days I received a call on my mobile out of the blue from Saphire studios....
congratulations, I was one of a lucky five selected to have won three tickets for a free makeover and photo shoot for myself and two friends( a little scripted I now think). I was even asked if I remembered entering the contest! As I did recall seeing a tag for something to do with a makeover on an online contest I recently entered I replied yes. The representative then said she was the studio manager and given a name (I'll not post this at present). She even proclaimed how lucky I was and asked why I didn't sound exited? I said I was travelling home from work. She was very friendly chatting about how good I was using public transport, what I would like from the day, who I'd take and was even told the studio had worked with big names and dropped the names of a famous pop singer and BBC TV shows to convince me (My lie detector should have gone off here but failed. I can find no evidence for these claims as of yet) In between this friendly chat (a distraction technique me wonders?) she went though the ins and outs of the 'prize'. I was also told I wouldn't want to miss out would and how it would go to someone else if I said no (A little pushy? but not alarm bells yet). I was told of the refundable booking fee to hold my free tickets was required ( And this was something I'd won? Alarm bells shout have sounded here ). I checked if it was refundable even if I cancelled before paying (I like to double check. I was told it was). This fee I was led to believe was around £50 (£49.99) which I assumed was for everything and was not given any other details, just tied up in friendly chat (In my defence it's difficult to hear your phone on a BUS). At this point on a normal day I'd have hung up-booking fee for a prize? But I had a bad day it was nice to think I'd had some luck and what was the worst that could happen I'd lose £50. I was repeatedly pushed for a date especially when I said I needed to get home first to check out transport online she looked up from me there and then giving me prices from home and other places. I had stupidly mentioned about being away from work and Friday the 16th was brought and a provisional booking was made for two.
So imagine my shock having got home and paid when I received an email showing triple that amount was taken. £149.97 FOR A BOOKING FOR 2! That isn't even divisible by two.
Rapidly I Googled them and got that sinking feeling. I called a friend who told me they'd been caught a few years ago by a similar thing. (she got a refund, boy am I Jealous)
Their own site only has one photo in each gallery (A bit odd I thought) let alone the 2nd 3rd and 4th listings being forums and complaints....(Those alarm bells were ringing now still better late than never). Since then I've been calling , all I get for the 100+ attempts is answering machines on both numbers and a big phone bill(one apparently customer service actually it was appointments).
That Sat I cancelled my credit card (yes I paid on that. Thank someone because I obviously did not have my thinking head on that day)and tried to cancel again on Mon. As there was no reply again on both numbers I emailed and left a message to call me at first and then to cancel. (Now this is the odd thing after the use of the word cancel I got a reply, weird. They even tried to call me three times! I got voicemails but only one missed call, oddly the rest of the world could get hold of me.) The first message they left said I sounded distressed (Really do ya think) and could I call them back. Trust me I'd been trying. By this point the representative or 'studio managers' voice mail also changed hum....( a little more odd me thinks)
Any who since then I've been embroiled in a war of words via text and email to cancel and get my money back and now simply have to vent before I explode!
No one there seems to understand the word cancel I keep being told, I can give them to a friend or change dates it's valid for 3 months. (Do I look like a cabbage? I'll be dead before I'm that daft again and I wouldn't pass this on to my worst enemy. Also how would they get hold of them if I can't)
To cap it all as it seems my chance of a refund is slim to none even with the blatant misrepresentation (PRIZE my backside). I'm trying charge back with my card but I don't hold much hope. Apparently because it's a leisure activity distance selling regs don't apply (Why didn't I find this out earlier) I can only go for breach of contract (good job I called consumer direct) and that is my word against theirs(Dash) and to cap it all they deny I what was told, this is part of the last email they sent.
Thank you for this email.
The terms and conditions on the booking confirmation we've sent is just a complex interpretation of what ***** had explained to you during the initial call and a durable confirmation of the booking since it was done over the phone.
At no point during your conversation with her were you told or led to believe you had won a prize. Therefore I am disputing the fact that you were misled or that our services were misrepresented to you in anyway.
Now correct me if I'm wrong this implies I lied which adds insult to injury. The word prize may not have been used but it was implied by the use of the words won, completion and lucky. As I'm sure others know and as you can read from other posts I am not inventing this; if anything I'm rather embarrassed that they got me. Fortunately I recalled They said the conversation was recorded at one point so I've asked for a copy of this (I hope it does cover all of it from start to finish. If not I would like to know why not) so that I have evidence to prove they told me I'd won.
I just hope the links to this and other forums I provided is taken as evidence of the misrepresentation. At least this will be passed on to trading standards and I urge all other to do the same. The more complaints the more evidence so Call consumer direct and tell them.
On the whole I guess I've had an expensive lesson I just hope I can stop others doing the same0 -
Hi Ratraisin, my friend was sucked in by this bunch of charlatans too (as have a lot of people, from what I have read on forums like this). They tried to fob her off too and say that she signed up for it, tough luck. BUT she eventually got a refund. Be persistent and don't let them get away with it! My friend rang me up and said she had won a prize for the two of us to have a makeover, she only had to pay a deposit of £98, as soon as she said that I cringed, thinking of those "I am a Nigerian Prince, give me a thousand pound and you can have a share of my fortune" emails. I am very abrupt with cold callers and could see in the cold light of day that it was all very dubious if not technically a "scam", but I can completely see how people get carried away if they are tired, distracted, a bit down or whatever, and merrily hand over their payment details. I would personally never do it, partly because being photographed makes me die a little inside so a photo shoot is my idea of hell, and I would tell the salesperson as much. Partly because I am a hardened cheapskate and would question why I have to pay if it's a prize. But am flabbergasted at the fact that people fall victim to companies like this. Since my friend fell for it, it has become a minor obsession of mine. People should complain to Consumer Direct, and don't let them bully you into turning up to their crappy photo shoot (where they will subject you to even more hard selling and guilt tripping to buy the photos at an extortionate rate - if people can't turn someone down over the phone, I wouldn't fancy their chances against someone who has locked you in a high pressured stuffy room!). Just keep on at them like a scratch record and assert that you want your refund asap. There are plenty of other threads with people who have managed it, you could look there for tips. Good luck!0
-
Does anyone know if the admiral newsletter advertising a competition to win a free ipad2 is a scam? It takes you to sureymonkey.com which seems a bit suspicious to me?0
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 351K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.6K Spending & Discounts
- 244K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.9K Life & Family
- 257.3K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards