Stop The Scammers
As compers, we always look forward to hearing about a win, whether the notification comes as a letter, a phone call or nowadays, an email or text message. But recently there has been an alarming increase in the number of "Winning messages" that are not what they seem to be.
I have just received a phone call telling me I am a winner thanks to a survey I completed, although I really don't remember doing it. The prize is a holiday to Spain, but I have to sign up for and attend a presentation before I can take the holiday. Is this usual with prize holidays?
No, it isn't - if a prize is a real prize, it will not have any "strings" attached. This is almost certainly a timeshare company, trying to get you to sign up, and the presentation will be a very high pressure sales pitch. You may feel you can be strong minded and go along without buying, but if you do you will probably find that the "holiday" you have won turns out to be a very disappointing one in a basic apartment with no choice of dates or departure airport. My advice is to give this a wide berth.
Whatever the prize, if you are asked to attend a presentation or send an administration fee before you can have the prize, the warning bells should start ringing in your head.
But of course Timeshare presentations shouldn't be confused with the other sort of presentation every comper dreams of - the one where they hand you a big cheque or the keys to a shiny new car. Mark my words, if this is the sort of presentation the promoter has in mind, it will be VERY obvious to you!!!
I have just received the following text message on my mobile "URGENT This is our 2nd attempt to contact you. Last weekend's draw shows that you have won a £400 prize! claim code BT**. To claim call 0906******* calls cost 150ppm" Is it worth me making the call?
Sadly this is the latest form of scam - many of us have received similar messages over the last few weeks. And someone is making a lot of money out of it - just look at that call charge; £1.50 a minute! If you make the call it will last four to six minutes, so it could cost you as much as £9, and if you ever receive the prize it will indeed be worth £400, but it will come in the form of £400 worth of money off vouchers for holidays, which will come with so many conditions attached to them that to redeem them would cost you thousands of pounds.
But the cost of the calls for a practically worthless prize is only the tip of the iceberg. A report on the BBC Watchdog programme found that some people who responded to similar text messages found themselves on the receiving end of a stream of filthy text messages afterwards - the original text was just a test to see if a randomly generated number was an active one.
For this reason, it is very important that you tell your children not to reply to any "winning messages" they get on their phones. There are a lot of text comps out there, and many of them are aimed at children, so tell them that if they get a winning message they should show it to you, then you can decide whether it looks genuine and is safe to reply to. Ask them to tell you when they enter a text competition and if possible to save the entry messages they send, so that you can check that winners' messages tally with comps that have actually been entered.
I was very excited when I received an airmail letter from the continent. It says that I have won a valuable prize, but I need to send them a "release fee" of £20 before they can send it to me. Is this the way things are done overseas?
No, it isn't. If you have really won a prize, it will be delivered to you at no extra charge (some local newspapers and shops are an exception to this, as they expect all entrants to live near enough to pop into the office and pick their prize up). If you send them any money, you will probably never see anything for it, or at best receive a small, almost worthless prize like some cheap jewellery or a pen and pencil set.
It is beginning to sound as if there are so many cons out there, I could be caught out at any time. How can I enjoy comping without being taken in by them?
First of all, remember that if you didn't ENTER the comp, you can't have WON it. If you are thorough enough to keep records of every comp you enter (and very few of us are!) you will be able to check every win notification against your records.
But the best thing to do is to develop a sixth sense for what is genuine and what isn't. An experienced comper has probably received enough winning letters, emails and telephone calls to be able to spot the genuine article, but if you are a beginner you need to question everything. If you are asked to send money, call a premium rate call, divulge your income or give bank account details before receiving your prize, it is probably a scam. If you are unsure, check it with the promoter.
The Office of Fair Trading publishes a useful booklet about holiday competition scams called "Congratulations - you have not won a FREE luxury holiday!", product code OFT642, which can be downloaded here
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consumer_leaflets/general/oft642.pdf
And remember - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!