Newspaper competitions are fake?

andy_g

Sun Bingo Numbers today 24 March

2 -7- 10 -11 -18 -37 -38 -47 -61 -66 80

andy_g

Sun Bingo Numbers today 24March

2- 7- 10 -11- 18 -37- 38 -47 -61 -66 -80

xangeleyes

I use these sites....or used to, I got so fed up as I never won anything and wouldn't hear about it. Would be interesting if anyone on here has won something from them!
Win 4 Now
Instant Win 4 Now

They're both free to use. But again, I've never won anything

david39

Those of us old enough to remember the fashion competitions in the Sunday People (1950's?) will remember there were about 10 photos of women in dresses or swimsuits that the competitor had to place in order of preference of style and fashion. If it coincided with the choice of the "judges" he won £750 or part thereof, depending on the number of winners. £750 was a lot of money in those days.

If you can also remember Kenneth Robinson (chairman of TV's "Ask the Family") you may have read his autobiography in which he says his first job in journalism was with The People, as an office boy. He was given the job of being the judges for the competition. He had to assemble all the entries into separate piles. Each pile was to contain the same entry and then the pile containing the least entries was the judges' choice.

This meant that the prize money was split between the least number of people, thereby ensuring that winners always received the highest value prize possible - good for increasing the number of entries for the competiton which carried an entrance fee.

The trick to winning the competition was obviously to put the girls into the least likely order but we only found that out long after the competition was stopped and Mr Robinson became more famous.

Gavin83

I know someone who won the prize on the gadget show, where you win like a lorry load of electrical treats. He won about £26,000 worth in total.

aurongrande_2

shadowknightz wrote: »

I tried entering a ton of magazine competitions a while ago and won nothing. People may win these things occasionally but I'd wager they're largely an exercise in information harvesting. Maybe the magazines sell all the info on to other places so they recuperate what they spent on the prize?

Now that's a possibility.

aurongrande_2

duchy wrote: »

Wel lif you think they are rigged don't enter them then !!!

I used to enter a LOT of competitions -None were "pay to enter" I used to just trawel the internet for them -google is your friend.

I won two lots of £5000, mobile phone, suitcase, pamper packs, perfume, a cat carrier,books, CDs ,DVDs, a real Christmas tree, £500 shopping spree in a clothes store at Bluewater -all kinds of stuff but I used to sit down and enter maybe 50 a night not 1 or 2.

Don't do much now as I have a lot less free time but you only have to look on the competitions thread here to see plenty of people still do it (and if was rigged they'd hardly be posting would they).

But hey if you want to believe "It's rigged because I never win" go right on ahead :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

As for not sounding excited Letts diaries called me at work on my mobile -and said "You've won first prize in our competition" I had no idea what the prize was as I'd entered months before .........when she said £5000 I was stunned into silence .........and couldn't woop-woop anyway -£5000 wasn't enough to lose my job over

I'm not saying all competitions are rigged or fake, just the newspaper ones.

KxMx

Oopsadaisy wrote: »

Decent 'comps' draws a winner from all entries - ie someone is guaranteed to win the top prize [in fact all prizes are distributed]

The 'scams' print several million cards [usually found inside mags and papers] and since the response rate is about 1% or less they know there is very little chance of the 'main prize' winning card being redeemed...instead everyone wins a 'digital camera' worth £2.50 that costs them £13 to call a premium line and then £6.50 post and insurance.

So be careful.

I'm not bothered about the top prizes since I know the odds are so poor- I had my third £10 cheque today from the scratchcards you mentioned, claim number came via email, cost me 3 2nd class stamps total

moonbeep

Anybody think online bingo sites like Tombola are rigged?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Funny you should mention that moonbeep as was talking to a friend about these the other day as she likes playing them and has won a couple of grand over the last year or so

Its based on a random number system but because computers cannot randomly pick numbers - It has to be programmed - each game is already decided before it starts.

There may be games where its programmed to have multiple winners on the full house and maybe only one on the 1 & 2 lines or even a mixture but this is pre determined..

This is also why they have a set amount of cards that you can purchase for each game..

Now when you think that there may be over 100 people playing a game at busy periods it can there fore lead to people thinking that its a fix as they never win.. But the trick is not to just select the strips it first offers you try asking it to offer you some different ones if you fancy.

But no, they are not rigged..

EDIT: Just to add that they also have lots of cards that will be 1 number to go to give the player the thrill of getting so close that they have another game or 5..