Someone on reddit thinks the Telegraph comps are rigged.

Rossco_Clarko

This has made me suspicious and I have done some of my own digging! One of the Wonga competitions gave a prize away to a blogger and there's currently a comp running on here where the top two are bloggers (writing for big names and being sent products to review- so more than just a 'normal' blogger) and the third appears to be high up on the chain somewhere along the line. As well as that, the other top people are all the first search result on facebook and have a lot of friends and are friends with the no.1 person but have no real photos etc. purely comping. Hmm, I'll keep my eye on that!

titchylin

have stopped going onto blog sites - as i do believe they have there own agendas - how can they review goods then enter their comps - I waould read that as working for that company - they say what they want and do as they please

Rossco_Clarko

titchylin wrote: »

have stopped going onto blog sites - as i do believe they have there own agendas - how can they review goods then enter their comps - I waould read that as working for that company - they say what they want and do as they please

I agree! The suspicious thing is that this comp is for a major thing-not a blog comp so keeping my eyes on it!

vanpopple

And who cares??????
Loads of rigging and cheating goes on in comps, always has always will.
However look at IWIW posts, regardless of a few comps that are rigged here and there, there are a thousand more that arent..

But thousands and thousands of mse winners including myself every month,

Wonder which company is next to be accused.
Better of spending your time entering comps rather than fretting about cheats and rigging (or do what alot of compers are doing setting up so-called blogs, not for real life just to get free stuff sent and win more comps as they say they'll promote on their blog - just another sort of rigging (twitter)

Rossco_Clarko

I understand where you're coming from but at the same time, I don't think it's right that people spend time entering competitions that they will never win and where possible, people should be made aware so they're not wasting their time. I've only be comping properly for a short time and in that time, I spent all day (literally) taking part for a prize not to be given, I've seen another prize not be awarded at all, this has been mentioned and there is another major comp (that requires effort) that appears to be suspicious- I don't think it's fair on people who spend their time on entering for in effect, nothing- not even a chance.

Zanzib

There's also the legality issue.

There are a lot of competitions being run fairly and honestly, and big names should be held to account if they are breaking the rules.

It also reflects on the company providing the prize...

vanpopple

I agree with both points there,
but as with comps that require effort i very rarely bother as they are the ones that tend to be (rigged/cheated via stupid scores etc)
I find rather than spend 30 mins on 1 comp do 15 comps instead.

I hate that so many prizes are 'never awarded' (think about how many comps youve entered over the last 3 months and i bet its 10000+) but how many of them have you actually seen who won??

I know i cant think of 10000 winning posts in the last 3 months,
it does make you wonder, but if you wonder too much you will just waste your own time,
i say just keep entering as many you can, and if after the comp closes you feel something might not be right then contact the company, then threaten to contact the relevant authorities.

(i did this recently where a prize was never awarded (comp won 4 months ago), and within 48 hours of sending a firm but fair letter my prize was awarded)

Also if out of say 3000+ comps a months you enter doesnt really make that much difference if a few are unfair.
Its lucky we have a forum like this where people can be made aware of the more unscrupulous companies.
And we can choose to avoid them if we choose (incendetally <-? i have actually entered 3 telegraph comps tonight lol)

david39

In Robert Robinson's autobiography he related how his first job in Fleet Street was with the old Sunday newspaper' The People.
They ran a fashion competition (£750 prize but with an entry fee) where you were to place in order about 10 photos of women in different clothing - most fashionable first down to worst. They were then placed in order by "a panel of judges".

The panel of judges was the office boy (Robinson) who was given the job of sifting the entries into piles, each separate pile containing the same submitted results from different contestants. The "winner(s)" were those entries in the smallest pile -thereby ensuring the money was split between the least number of contestants and so appeared to be a large sum to encourage you to try again next week.

Best chance of winning was to put the pictures in REVERSE order!

The_3rd_Zebu

The scam invoving newspapers competitions that I remember was 'The Sun Bingo Scam' around 1985.

A printer at the works where the bingo cards were printed was stealing the winning cards and distributing them amongst his relatives.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19890726&id=jxI1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=w6ULAAAAIBAJ&pg=5368,2638216

Suspicions started to be raised only after so many of the winners seemed to be living in the Blackburn area.

( I never did have much faith in "winning card" type competitions)

gallygirl

In "the olden day"(80's to 90's) I know some competitions weren't rigged initially but potential winners were vetted to ensure they were 'suitable'. E.g. double glazing comps where the address would be checked out to make sure it would look good in a pic, not a 'scummy council estate' which wouldn't make the sponsors product look good.

I've also heard (and seen the evidence) that the bigger the prize the fewer the entrants. Presumably people feel they can push their luck to win a DVD but would never be lucky enough to win a car.