Automated Competition Entries - Compers Unite!

ehlittleone

I don't know if this has been discussed before but it was brought up on another thread about the use of automated competition entries.

A relatively small company claims to have had over 100,000 entries for a competition they ran and it seems likely that they have been hit with automated entries.

This seems really unfair to me that the likes of us who spend hours every day filling in the forms ourselves are up against these companies entering thousands of entries on behalf of other people who are quite probably winning the prizes.

Is it just me that thinks they are wrong? Do you think the companies that run the competitions realise or mind that this is happening? Is there anything that can be done to stop it - ie if we all wrote to the IPM to get them stopped?

I personally wouldn't bother entering a competition where these type of entries were being made as I realise I'd have no chance and wouldn't waste my time.

Anyone got any thoughts or experience on this method of entry.

Thanks

jpwhittle

it does happen but more and more people are using captchas these days to try and stop automated entries. When i startred comping 4 years ago there were hardly any captchas around and also alot less compers, but these days there are alot more compers (wich is great) and also alot more capthas, wich are also good, as they stop the automated entries, they might be annoying but in alot of cases they give us measly people a chance of winnning if that makes sense. keep going you will win and sometime the ones you wouldnt expect.

ehlittleone

Thanks jp - when I read the thread last night with the company saying that they had 100,000 entries I wondered if this was the norm and felt a bit of "whats the point". I enter an awful lot of comps on MSE and maybe win 2 or 3 per month and wondered if this was the reason why.

It would be interesting to know if it still goes on a lot but I guess we will never find out.

Not complaining about my wins though because I do "ok" but thats mainly down to facebook where there are less entries.

mjm3346

There is nothing to stop automated entries if a competitions terms & conditions do not exclude that entry method. Even when they are excluded they still have to be stopped and I know there is now software that can beat the basic captcha.

glacier

Think it depends if the promoter can be bothered to put in measures to stop or remove automated entries. Some do, some don't. Capchas is one way but they can also check IPs, duplicate addresses, phone no. etc. I would hope most promoters don't tolerate abuse.

Lu72

I work for a small company that runs comps as part of our marketing. Most of our comps have double opt in (where you have to respond to an email you're sent) or you have to make a comment on the blog, which is then authorised by a human (me, normally). For newsletter sign ups, which are double opt in as well I still manually check IP addresses to make sure there aren't any automated entries. I would think most companies do this because let's face it competitions are how companies get their products promoted and sold. I find it hard to believe that a comp would get 100,000 entries.

I also get the lovely job of picking winners and then contacting them. It really is random and I don't care if your email address contains the word competition/comp! I hope this puts your mind at rest as I can't be the only person who works for a company that runs legitimate comps.

ehlittleone

Thanks Lu good to hear. What a lovely job to contact winners - bet its a nice feeling when you get a good response from them. x

twinklenicci

i know the company youre on about lol i made my voice heard last night and they have admitted today that it had been hit by automated entries and they are trying to resolve it . . . I think companies do mind , as it looks bad for them too x

ehlittleone

it was you last night that got me thinking about this nicci lol i'll go have a look see how that ended up x

lindens

Jason has brought this up on his blog more than once and does try to warn companies in general about how to prevent this and how to spot it also. I agree its very unfair.

libra10

Jason at Loquax has done lots of research into automated entries and written several blogs about the problem, contacting promoters and others involved in running competitions.

http://blog.loquax.co.uk/automatedentries/the-ipm-and-automated-competition-entry-services-1736.htm


http://blog.loquax.co.uk/automatedentries/more-automated-competition-entry-emails-to-watch-out-for-1875.htm

Although Captcha codes help to a certain extent, they fail to totally eradicate the problem.