They’re everywhere! Little scratch cards slipped into newspapers and magazines, promising new houses and boats and cash. The first time I unscratched three-of-a-kind, I was briefly elated then thoroughly skeptical. Apparently, to claim my prize I had to call a number that would charge me something like 1GBP/minute. And there was a note about my prize being guaranteed at a value greater than the cost of the phone call. Of course, I didn’t call. And ever since, I’ve noticed that they are ALL winners. Every single scratch card.
So what’s the straight dope? Have any Brits here ever won and called? And what about the address you can write to claim your prize at- is that a scam loophole, or an invitation for junkmail (not that I really care about actual junkmail, except when I think about all the dead trees)?
Of course I mean ‘scam.’ If someone could correct that…
In order to get to the bit where you find out which of the lovely(!) prizes you have won, you have to navigate through lengthy and contorted recorded messages and button responses (and often these seem to work really poorly; for example, you can’t select a menu option until after the whole menu has been painstakingly read out to you, or you’re asked to punch in your code number from the scratch card and the machine reads the number back to you, but it is wrong, so you have to type it again, but only after listening to another set of options) - the menus and recorded messages are plainly spun out with redundant flowery language and repetition, and are spoken really slowly.
So you spend a tenner or more getting to the message about your prize, which invariably turns out to be ‘holiday vouchers’ (which will come with their own impossible conditions of use) or some crappy silver-style photo frame worth 25p.
Meh.
The majority of the ‘prizes’ are usualy discount vouchers for holidays. That way to redeem your prize you have to spend far more than the voucher value on a holiday, which you could probably get cheaper at a regular travel agent. Plus you paid £1/min for the call.
The giveaway is in the small print on the other side - it will contain a clause stating how many of each prize is up for grabs. It normally says that the prizes are distributed thus
(1xMercedes, 1xCarribean Cruise, 1x£50,000, 10xTelevision, 10xstereo, 10x£50, 1000+xsterling silver pen set)
A thousand plus is probably more like twenty million of course - you can be effectively certain that your going to get the cheap, nasty biro if you ring up. The prize most peole get is, by its very defintion, worth less than the cost of the phone call you make to claim.
Like ticker says, these days the useless prize is normally a medditerranean holiday that people will have to pay extra to actually claim, or that is so indescribaly awful no one will want to take up.
Another scam is the “free weekend break” in a hotel. You do indeed get the accommodation for free, but you have to have every dinner and one lunch in the hotel restaurant and spend a minimum of lots of money. Thomas Cook were pulling this one a few years back too.
Last year one of the scams offered the usual “1 x £10,000, 10 x £1000, etc.” and a “25 carat emerald”.
Now, a polished, well-cut emerald like this certainly would be worth a little money. However, they sent you a raw emerald, offering to polish it, cut it and set it in a bracelet for £20. I believe Watchdog then called their bluff by sending them an ordinary stone from the garden which, magic!, they somehow transmogrified into an emerald.
Another scam I have come across is the so called “free” flights . The one I saw was from an internet service provider as an incentive to sign up with them. The flights ( to Paris ) were free but you had to purchase at least three nights in hotels provided by them . The rates they were charging for these hotels were outragous. It was something like £150 a night when , by going independant , you could get the same rooms for something like £60 a night.
Fixed. That’ll be 1GBP. Thank you. And this way for your flight, please…
-xash
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