Age or Date of Birth

Sbarkia

Why do so many comps ask for your age or even date of birth? I can understand lower age restrictions in respect of some prizes such as alcohol, cars or holidays but surely 'Over 18" or whatever should be enough. Being a cynic I feel they want winners who fit in with their image and as I am quite a bit older I often knock a few (or even several) years off. When the terms and conditions simply state that entrants must be over a certain age would they have grounds to disqualify winners found to have done this?

weeowens

Sbarkia wrote: »

Why do so many comps ask for your age or even date of birth? I can understand lower age restrictions in respect of some prizes such as alcohol, cars or holidays but surely 'Over 18" or whatever should be enough. Being a cynic I feel they want winners who fit in with their image and as I am quite a bit older I often knock a few (or even several) years off. When the terms and conditions simply state that entrants must be over a certain age would they have grounds to disqualify winners found to have done this?

Pm sent to Glad for a move to : http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=215

The only editing I do with my DOB on any comp is that I have a comping DOB.This is one digit out from the real one.It has never proved an issue on wins,even on two big holiday prizes.
My advice would be to either stick with your true date or stick with one comping DOB.Constant changes will just cause you to lose track.Just my view of course :-)

starving_artist

I am always reluctant to give my real dob as it seems unnecessarily risky from an identity theft point of view. Most of the time all the competition organisers need to know is that you are over 18 or at most which age range you fall in to.

tgroom57

I have 2 birthdates - one real & 1 for comping - because of the risk of id theft. The comping one is 'representative' of my age group.

epm-84

Sbarkia wrote: »

Why do so many comps ask for your age or even date of birth?

The promoters want to get something back off you.

If they find out your gender, age, part of the country you live in etc. then it's useful information for them to see if the people visiting the site are actually the same demographic as it's targeting.

If the promoter is looking at a few possibilities for future competitions - say one is a working holiday in Australia but they can only guarantee a working visa for under 30s - then it wouldn't be a good competition to run if most of the people who visit the site are over 40.

Sbarkia

First of all many thanks for moving this to the right place. Thanks also to those who have been kind enough to reply. I can see the sense of cpm-84's point regarding such things as holidays, but hardly think it would apply for a comp involving something such as perfume. I admit I've never considered the risk of identity theft but will follow weeowens' example in future for those where I suspect they might prefer, though not actually need, someone younger.

Ms_Chocaholic

It seems us compers are like the Queen, two birthdays, one of which is official