Scam or not??

orville_2

My mum has received three letters (from the same company) saying that she has been selected with our postal region, to receive a prize up to the value of £25,000. I've hastily torn the letters up and said that its a scam but she is teetering on responding. To phone them the call is going to be a mimimum of £9 - is this where they make their money? To say I'm dubious is an understatement - has anyone else come across this? The company is somewhere in Yorkshire.
Thanks

scotsbob

Well the key words there are "up to"
Your mum should not be surprised if the prize is worth £1 (if she is lucky)

jasonwatkins

You usually find that the lowest prize denomination is what you'll get - some inconsequential holiday vouchers worth about £5 quid.

Not a scam in the truest sense of the word, but a definite ripoff.

geordie_joe

Definitely a ripoff.

It's a simple formula, tell people they have won a prize, but what they have to pay to get the prize is a lot more than the prize is worth. So the company makes a profit every time.

It relies on people thinking/hoping they have won one of the high value prizes, but they always win the lowest value prize.

kitsonian

Ask your mum if she has entered a competition to win that amount of money. If not, ask yourself why would someone out of the blue would contact with claims of a large amount of money won. How would they make their money back by randomly giving out wads of cash on a seemingly random basis. There has to be something in it for them, which is presumably the money made from calling up their phone line to "claim" the prize.

EvanP

I agree with everyone else.

She will pay the £9 to make the call and get some £5 vouchers or something.

geordie_joe

kitsonian wrote: »

Ask your mum if she has entered a competition to win that amount of money. If not, ask yourself why would someone out of the blue would contact with claims of a large amount of money won. How would they make their money back by randomly giving out wads of cash on a seemingly random basis. There has to be something in it for them, which is presumably the money made from calling up their phone line to "claim" the prize.

I don't mean to offend you but this is why these things work, people don't read things properly.

The OP never said the letter claimed their mum had won £25,00, the letter said she had won "a prize up to the value of £25,000".

The people who run these scams rely on people reading "a prize up to the value of £25,000" and thinking "Won £25,000".

The phrase "up to £25,000" means anything from NOTHING up to £25,000".

What they send you, as a prize, costs less than what you have to pay to get it. They charge to £10 to get your prize, but you don't mind because you think you've won £25,000. But what you get is a 10p biro that cost 30p to post to you, and they get £9.60 profit.

You think you can't complain about it, because you got a prize that falls within the limits of nothing to £25,000, nobody ever said you'd won £25,000.

lisa4yx

This sounds like a group that were sending me mail at one point and it was usually £10.00 and the cost of the phone call was 9,i learnt after calling twice lol