Advice Needed To Claim Prize From Website

bairn1

Hi there,

Apologies if this post isn't suitable for this forum, but I've spent ages searching the web for advice on this and am not really sure who I can contact...

The problem I have is with the website https://www.aquestionofmoney.com which contains online quiz games where you pay money and answer some questions with the chance of winning prizes. I checked the website first and it all seemed kosher and I deposited some money which soon came out of my bank account.

A few weeks later (after a bit of effort) I managed to win some money and withdrew first of all £10 of my winnings, then a few days later £20.

A few weeks further on and I have still not received my winnings and I have tried to contact them both by e-mail (with no response to any of them) and with the telephone number on their website (my phone says it's an incorrect number).

I'm not quite sure what else to do or who else I can go to? Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Thanks.

alecpr

Certainly look legit, they are part of a company called worldspreads, which was founded in Dublin and and whos main business is spred bets on the equity market. Been around a few years, so I'd just chase them via one of the other contact us methods:

telephone
online chat
webform
regular mail
phone

Doesn't look like you have any worries about your money, just a typically lazy company :-/

If no joy, you could always use the contact details on worldspread.com, company info with managing director etc on there.

Found via this whois information on your website:

Registrant:
World Spreads
8 The Anchorage
Charlotte Quay
Dublin 4, NA NA
Ireland

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: AQUESTIONOFMONEY.COM
Created on: 11-Jul-05
Expires on: 16-Nov-07
Last Updated on: 07-Sep-05

Administrative Contact:
Gilgunn, Philip philipg@worldspreads.com
World Spreads
8 The Anchorage
Charlotte Quay
Dublin 4, NA NA
Ireland
16609835 Fax --

Technical Contact:
Gilgunn, Philip philipg@worldspreads.com
World Spreads
8 The Anchorage
Charlotte Quay
Dublin 4, NA NA
Ireland
16609835 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.EASYDNS.COM
REMOTE2.EASYDNS.COM

bairn1

Many thanks.

I've already tried the online chat (doesn't work), web form (no reply), phone (incorrect number?) so I'll try and contact someone through the worldspreads.com e-mail addresses.

Thanks loads for finding this out!

libra10

If no success, contact the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) at

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/

I had a problem receiving a prize I had won and filled in their online claim form. They sorted it out really quickly, they're brilliant.

Good luck

bairn1

Thanks for your help both.

Unfortunately this problem is still ongoing. Initially, I had some success by contacting worldspreads.com. They forwarded my e-mail to someone else who replied very apologetically and said a cheque was now on it's way to me. This was about two months ago, though, and nothing arrived, and any futher e-mails I sent received no answer as before.

I tried the ASA, who put me on to Consumer Direct who suggested that I put something in writing saying they must send my money within 10 working days or I'd take legal action.

This was a month ago, now, and still nothing has turned up, so it looks I'll have to resort to legal action (small claims?) if I want to pursue this.

Does anyone have any experience of doing something like this through Consumer Direct as the money is less than £100 and I'm wondering if it's worth the extra time and stress?

P.S. Meanwhile the website continues to function taking other peoples money (although it only looks like a few pounds a day) - presumably they won't have any chance of seeing any money they win either.

rogue_element

You should be able to claim back the costs of going to court from the company itself. But if its only £20 I would suggest claiming back from your bank. Write to your bank and explain. They will write to the bank which they use and if they do not reply within a certain time, you get the money back...

bairn1

It's not so much claiming the money back, but claiming winnings, so I'm not sure I can do this through the bank other than claim my initial deposit back.

I deposited £10 with the site, then by playing on-line quizzes built this up to almost £100 and withdrew it.

I have saved the few e-mails I have from the company including one apologising for the delay and for no-one replying and saying that the cheque for my winnings was on its way to me, so hopefully this will be proof enough if it goes to court.

randomangles

I'm having a similar problem to the OP:

I signed up through pigsback last year

In Jan of this year, I suddenly couldn't log in and the site told me my account was temporarily suspended and to contact them immediately.

I tried the phone number but it is a wrong number.

I spoke to someone in World Spreads, who said I would get a call back.

No-one called me back, and since then I've tried to call, I've emailed AQOM, and WorldSpreads, and pigsback. Pigsback have been helpful, sending on my emails, and even sending on one or two comments from AQOM, who occasionally say they've tried to get in touch with me, although even though they have my address, two email addresses, and three telephone numbers for me, have so far failed to get hold of me.

I even sent a letter via international recorded delivery.

No joy.

This morning I asked pigsback for a direct line into AQOM, and if that wasn't possible, to let AQOM know that if I don't hear from them before the end of this month, I'll have to start finding alternative ways of resolving the problem.

I tried to cash out twice from my account, but no cheques arrived. In total, counting those and the money in my account when it was suspended, it comes to over £600. Quite apart from that is the fact that I can't even get my initial deposit back.

I will follow the advice given here, and thank you for that. The purpose of this post is really just to strongly advise people not to deposit money to aquestionofmoney.com - it seems almost impossible to ever get it back.

If someone has successfully withdrawn money from AQOM, please could they post here - it would at least be encouraging to know that someone has been successful