Anyone fallen for this con?

[Mailman]

Got me Sky magazine in the mail and what should be included but a brochure promising me I could win £1 million pounds (break the seal on this envelope and YOU could discover a genuine I.O.U inside...).

So I open it and I just happen to have one of the IOU's that says I could have won £1million pounds! There where other prizes on there but to claim it you have to either call a premium rate number or send a text with the cost being around $5.

Then on reading the small print it specifies how many prizes there are being

1x £1million x1
1x £3000 every week for a year
1x Saab9-3 convertable
3x £100 every week for a year
5x £3000 shopping spree
8x £1000 marks vouchers
100x twin city escapes
10x £500 Woolworths vouchers
100+ (note the plus here) French and Italian cruise vouchers
100x £250 cash

Now the con is being marketed by a company called "Purely Creative" and so far Ive been able to find out next to nothing about them apart from the fact that they have made very little money for their investors this year so far!

Anywho...anyone fallen for this con? My picking is that the major cash prizes (and the car) dont actually exist and all you will end up with is a £9 phone bill and a holiday that will come with some many conditions that they end up being worthless!

Regards

Mailman

[ratewhore]

phone from client site - everyones a winner!!!

[Rebecca Loos]

yes I have fallen for it once!
That's because you were guaranteed a price that looked half-decent (free tip to venice)

However even though I won two trips, they couldn't be combined to go together on the samea coach - they make you pay a "companion fee" (of £300!) if you try that. Looks like your cruise vouchers or twin city trip vouchers will be along those lines

The shopping vouchers were a bit useless, like Argos or B&Q.

The premium call cost me about £6.

Never again

[voron]

Never fallen for one myself, but the ex was a sucker for every scam or get rich quick scheme going, so I've had vicarious experience of everything from pyramid selling, home e-mail processing, psychics and dodgy franchises. Stupid cow

I once did some work for a cruise company that would offer people the chance to win a free holiday; simply fill in the card with your details and pop it in the box. Of course the holiday never existed, but everyone who entered would receive a telephone call from an agent flogging a cruise.

[BoredBloke]

"My picking is that the major cash prizes (and the car) dont actually exist and all you will end up with is a £9 phone bill"

I would say that by law they have to exist. I think the way it works is that there are thousands of bottom end prizes and the few top ones. They work on the basis that of the thousands and thousands of cards sent out, a tiny proportion actually have the winning code. But because the vast majority of people bin the cards, the chances of somebody actually getting the winning card AND then calling to claim are soooooooo small that the big prizes are never given out. That is totally different to not being available. They will also take out insurance to cover themselves againsty the top prizes being won, so that it isn't their money anyway.

Also, the bottom end prizes are usually promotional things. i.e. a £100 Thoma Cook voucher. Here the travel agent will give the card company the vouchers because they know that the customer will have to use it at their shop to redem it.

If you look in most mazazines, especially Sunday supplements, there are always these cards in them, so there must be money to be made.

[wendigo100]

Any news on getting away early for your impending holiday Tony? I hear Merseyside is nice at this time of the year.

[BoredBloke]

I have 4539 until my contract ends.

[SandyDown]

"My picking is that the major cash prizes (and the car) dont actually exist and all you will end up with is a £9 phone bill"

I would say that by law they have to exist. I think the way it works is that there are thousands of bottom end prizes and the few top ones. They work on the basis that of the thousands and thousands of cards sent out, a tiny proportion actually have the winning code. But because the vast majority of people bin the cards, the chances of somebody actually getting the winning card AND then calling to claim are soooooooo small that the big prizes are never given out. That is totally different to not being available. They will also take out insurance to cover themselves againsty the top prizes being won, so that it isn't their money anyway.

Also, the bottom end prizes are usually promotional things. i.e. a £100 Thoma Cook voucher. Here the travel agent will give the card company the vouchers because they know that the customer will have to use it at their shop to redem it.

If you look in most mazazines, especially Sunday supplements, there are always these cards in them, so there must be money to be made.

Well I saw this program .. I think it was the American apprentice, where one of the guys wanted to do a prize thingy like this, and he said that companies who issue sort of lottery tickets to win 1 million all they do is take insurance in case someone finds out that ticket... so it seems the likelihood of anyone finding the winning ticket is sooooo small that all they do is take the insurance .. or was it that if each person pays £9 phone bill then most likely they'll have the million easy, and the insurance is just in case they don't make the insurance plus a good profit???

[wendigo100]

I have 4539 until my contract ends.

You must have got two weeks parole. What did you do to convince the Guv'ner?

[BoredBloke]

Told her I was going!

I said that I didn't want to miss out on this wonderful role back home and basically said I was going for it. Had they wanted me to stay I would have developed some illness for 2 weeks.

I am now firmly in the demob happy stage