Newspaper competitions are fake?

aurongrande_2

Is it me, or are newspaper competitions fake or rigged?

Some of the big newspapers (Sun, Mirror, Mail, Express) provide various competitions in the form of scratch cards, bingos, draw of the hats and phone calls.

No matter how much I take part in the competitions, I don't win. Then again, that's down to my bad luck.

However, whenever they post an article showing that someone has won, it all seems as if it's made up to get people thinking that they do stand a chance of winning, and thus they'd by their paper. In other words, a marketing ploy.

I know that you can win on those scratch cards you buy in your local newsagents, as I've won a few times, if only to win back the money I spent on the card. (I went into a newsagent to get my winnings, and I was behind a woman who had won £777 on a scratch card.) People win the National Lottery. However, Newspaper competitions always seem like a marketing ploy to me.

Has anyone noticed this?

System

I beleive they are genuine. If they were fake or rigged then it would have got out by now. Most national Lottery scratch cards have odds around 5/1 I think, so one in five is a winner. On a newspaper competition its one winner out of hundreds of thousands applicants.

olias

Look at this way. How many competitions do you see to win cash, cars, luxury holidays, villas, cottages, mortgage paid off, etc etc. There are literally thousands and thousands of them each month. You rarely have a single issue of a magazine or newspaper without one, let alone all the comps you get with products, tv shows, radio phone ins, the list goes on, but.................Do you actually know anyone who has won one? - a substantial prize I mean, £5000 holiday, car, house etc. I know I don't, and I have a very large family and a large number of friends, colleagues and aquaintences. The law of probabilities says that surely we must know somebody who has won one of these prizes. Maybe we are all just unlucky?:D

ps. I once subscribed to one of those 'competition' magazines. Me and the wife spent a few months sending out literally hundreds and hundreds of entries to competitions. It cost us a small fortune in postcards and stamps, and what did we win................? A Lion King poster!

Olias

PZH

olias wrote: »

I once subscribed to one of those 'competition' magazines. Me and the wife spent a few months sending out literally hundreds and hundreds of entries to competitions. It cost us a small fortune in postcards and stamps, and what did we win................? A Lion King poster!

Olias

You should try the Competion Boards on MSE - 1000's of online comps, free to enter and there is also a winners board :money:

System

Well you won something then! The odds of winning a good competition where the prize is over £10k must be at least 100,000 / 1. Therefore you can enter as many competitions as you like but still the odds of you winning are minimal. I believe there is a competition board on this forum where people have reported winning big prizes.

As with all things its just sour grapes. Its the "I've not won so it must be fixed mentality". If it was fixed then everyone would know about it as they can't keep any scandal quiet these days. It would be worse than the ITV phone in scandal where people were being charged after the competition had closed. If it was proved that these competitions were fixed then there would be all sorts of complaints!

Bongedone

My friend won a £26000 car in a magazine. She used to make a living entering competitions with at least one major win per year to cover her living expenses.

trumpton

Many of the competitions are in effect raffles - the question is so easy that all entries are correct. The money is made from the £1 it costs to call in with the answer or text them. If the prize is say £5k, then they will expecting at least 5,000 people to enter. That gives you some idea of the odds. I would say to only enter free competitions, have a look on the Comps board for free ones.

I would be interested to know if anyone who emails the answer in ever wins as that's free to do.

athensgeorgia

My mum won £3K on a radio phone in once, It was at least 15 years ago so when 3k was a hefty chunk. It was just before christmas aswell, she just had to wait a couple of days for the cheque to come. So no this particular radio station does do real comps.

aurongrande_2

olias wrote: »

Look at this way. How many competitions do you see to win cash, cars, luxury holidays, villas, cottages, mortgage paid off, etc etc. There are literally thousands and thousands of them each month. You rarely have a single issue of a magazine or newspaper without one, let alone all the comps you get with products, tv shows, radio phone ins, the list goes on, but.................Do you actually know anyone who has won one? - a substantial prize I mean, £5000 holiday, car, house etc. I know I don't, and I have a very large family and a large number of friends, colleagues and aquaintences. The law of probabilities says that surely we must know somebody who has won one of these prizes. Maybe we are all just unlucky?:D

ps. I once subscribed to one of those 'competition' magazines. Me and the wife spent a few months sending out literally hundreds and hundreds of entries to competitions. It cost us a small fortune in postcards and stamps, and what did we win................? A Lion King poster!

Olias

I've also got a large family and all I hear is that someone or other has won a tenner on the Lottery.

paddyrg

I won dinner for two with wine and entertainment at Raymond Blanc's Manoir au Quat Saisons - worth £460 - from the FT, so it does happen!

aurongrande_2

goater78 wrote: »

I beleive they are genuine. If they were fake or rigged then it would have got out by now. Most national Lottery scratch cards have odds around 5/1 I think, so one in five is a winner. On a newspaper competition its one winner out of hundreds of thousands applicants.

Actually, I think the Lottery scratch cards odds are variable, depending on how you get get a chance to win. I'd say that 5/1 chance is to win your £1 back.

If the newspaper competitions aren't faked/rigged etc, or at least not been found out, or the newspapers are bribing the authorities to leave them be, then I'd say out of every competition they do, then only 1 person has an actual chance.