Online competitions and scams

Whether you win competitions regularly or not, regardless of your experience it's important to keep your eye out for online competitions that can be less than ethical. In our opinion, even competitions that cover themselves legally, can be morally a scam if you are tricked into buying something you don't want or need.

Note, we are not talking about competitions that you enter, and then are contacted later by a salesperson. This may be annoying to you, but always question as to why a competition is being run in the first place.

Our main area of concern involves financial cost, and more and more this is becoming apparent in the areas of mobile phones. If a competition requires you to enter a mobile phone as an only preference be suspicious.

If the brand in question is reputable, the reason for a mobile phone number may be purely for marketing reasons. If however you are sent a pin number back, run a mile. Chances are you will be charged for the privilege of receiving SMS offers and competitions.

We have seen a number of instances in which people will be charged up to $10 every 3 days, for taking part in trivia competitions. Unfortunately, this isn't found out until after the phone bill arrives, which can be a month or more down the track.

CompetitionsGuide.com.au does not feature or list (knowingly) any competition that charges an SMS premium. However, many rewards sites will contain these competitions as a secondary offer.

As always, terms and conditions are a good starting point, but even then give out your mobile number as a last option.

*Want to know more about how to win online competitions? - You can buy "Competitions - The Book" online here for only $13.95 including delivery. Click here to order


©Craig Bradley Market Engineering Pty Ltd. 2009. All articles are original content and opinions of the author Craig Seitam. Copying of all or part of any content without the expressed permission of the author is prohibited.