Prize Contests, are most of them rigged?

I always said the McDonald's monopoly game was rigged and a scam since I first saw the game, I played it the year it came out 1995, but I knew it was bogus, I just had a feeling about it. Ever since I have felt the same about all contests, even before I heard the news that the McDonald's monopoly game was proven to be a fraud,

en.wikipedia.org...'s_Monopoly

In 2000, the US promotion was halted after fraud was uncovered. A subcontracting company called Simon Marketing (a then-subsidiary of Cyrk), which had been hired by McDonald's to organize and promote the game, failed to recognize a flaw in its procedures, and the chief of security, Jerome P. Jacobson,[1] was able to remove the "most expensive" game pieces, which he then passed to associates who would redeem them and share the proceeds. The associates "won" almost all of the top prizes between 1995 and 2000, including McDonald's giveaways that did not have the Monopoly theme. The associates "netted" over $24 million. The scheme was uncovered when one of the participants informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This thread is not about the monopoly scam, this thread is about Contest Scams in general, that was just an example. What contests have you participated in and won? Or felt/knew were a scam?

I personally have never won a single contest worth mentioning except for maybe a hula hoop contest, but the big ones, do real people ever win them? Your thoughts... thanks. Forgot to mention, I won a big contest today, this is probably why I bring this up, I'm surprised I won and am waiting for the news that I have been disqualified in some way... what I won was tickets to the movie premiere of the Avengers, to me this is a big deal, I thought contests like this were rigged, but somehow with 1 tweet @drpepper I won, so I am starting to rethink my previous opinion, or I will be simply concluding that DrPepper contests are real.

I'm sure interested to watch this and see if there are any real winners here to contribute that perspective.

My stepfather was almost obsessive about entering contests and such for several years and actually did half way decent. He put hours in that someone could compare to a part time job with it though. I can't say what I saw him get was worth quite that much effort. Where are the big winners though? There has to be at least one on ATS. Heck, they really don't have a lack of free time.

reply to post by Razimus


Buddy, it's all rigged.

Look at the casinos in Las Vegas...

What do you think most people think of when they think of Las Vegas? What associations do they make in their mind? Do you believe most peoples' top three things they think of when they think of Las Vegas would be GAMBLING?

Gambling by the very definition of the word is "A vague guess" .. And most people loss money because of a vague guess...

LO$$ VAGUE GUESS ...
Las Vegas


__________________________

The McDonald's Monopoly game did not begin in 1995. It began in 1987.

The McDonald's Monopoly game is a sweepstakes advertising promotion of McDonald's and Hasbro, which uses the theme of the latter's board game Monopoly. The promotion has been offered in the United States, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, Austria, Poland, and Switzerland since 1987.
en.wikipedia.org...'s_Monopoly

In 1993 I won a Sega Genesis system from a box of Honey Nut Cheerios. Sort of..
They were having a giveaway and I opened my box to see if I'd won.. Inside the box was a ticket that said I'd won the third prize, which was a t-shirt. The Sega was the first place prize.
I was excited to have won anything, and immediately sent in my ticket..
Several weeks later, I got a big box from UPS, that said it was from General Mills.
It seemed kind of heavy for a t-shirt, and I was ecstatic to open a new Sega Genesis.
The same day, a letter came in the mail, also from General MIlls.

Something along the lines of "We sent out the wrong prize. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, but please keep and enjoy your new Sega Genesis System."

So, I can confirm that, at least as of 1993, General Mills cereal contests and giveaways were legitimate.

A friend of mine won a contest at a bridal show, or more like a "drawing". He won an all expense paid trip to an adults only all inclusive resort in Cancun (air fare included). He had since broke up with the girl he went to the bridal show with and met me, he asked me to go with him. It was legit. I mean really legit, it was a 4 diamond award hotel, snorkeling, para sailing, etc. The whole nine! I re-created the trip online when we got back (1/15/12) and found out it was worth almost five grand! We went this past January, and I can't wait to go back! Now I just need five grand or for him to win another contest! PS...........the resort is El Dorado Royale on the Riviera Maya.

reply to post by Razimus


Hmmm...

I've won a shotgun back in the eighties. A few lottery tickets as well. Nothing big though...maybe in the future.

I paid off all my debts back in the nineties while stationed in Germany by gambling, usually the slots but the occasional table as well.

The key is to play what you can afford to lose. Nothing more, nothing less.

And you don't win unless you play after all.

I know this thread isn't about McDonalds Monopoly Game, but i ate free for months the last time they had it!

Now a list of prizes I have won( I enter contests and fill out entry forms randomly. Sometimes its every day for weeks then nothing for months or years!)

A 32" Sony Trinitron TV, a $1000.00 Gas Card(Gas for a year back then) and a cool mini fridge that had Shell Gas on the sides(These were the grand prize from Shell Gas Stations)

A 5 night trip to the Bahamas at an all inclusive resort. 1st class tickets as well( Radio Contest)

a $500.00 Gift certificate to/from Toys R Us

At least a dozen concert tickets from call in radio stations and later internet sites for Radio Stations

A free Roof that I had them put on my Moms house(from a retail hardware store)

And finally just last year I won $2000.00 from Zynga Poker! I entered their sweepstakes and won 1st prize. The V.P. of Zynga games told me that I was the only one to fill out my winners form and SEND IT IN!

Free Stuff Rules.

I actually won on the mcdonalds game I want to say back in 2002 I think it was (it was the first or second time they ran the monopoly game online) Anyway I won I think it was $25 or so and I never got it. I had to call a machine read the number and I did everything the machine said and never got anything.

I think the lotteries are rigged and pay offs to their middle management servants. I notice very few poor or needy ever win them. A money grab funded by the poor.

This is what I won:

www.drpepper.com...

I have not received my tickets yet, and the world premiere is in 4 days!!!

I live 8 hours away from the el capitan theater on hollywood blvd.

I don't have experience winning a contest like this, it isn't exactly a hula hoop
contest, I bought a tuxedo, and plan on driving there leaving at 9am on tuesday
morning...

I will report on what happens, to be continued...

I have a personal story about this...

I used to work for a private investigation firm...and one of our clients was Dr. Pepper. While I was working at this firm, they had some kind of contest w/ a huge prize going on. A big $$ prize. The winner would be the one that had the DP carton packaging with the "winning code" inside. How many of you ever look at those codes when a contest is going on????? I NEVER did!!

They had my boss come to their main office, pick up the winning can package (I saw it with my own eyes)...and he delivered it to the manufacturing plant (where DP is made & packaged and all that) to be cycled into all the other packaging.

So yes, many of these contests are legit!

Do any of you remember the dollar bills they put in cerial boxes?

I won a sweeptakes once. Long ago. Now they are all scams these days.

reply to post by greeneyedleo


That's why you enter the "Second Chance" drawings when they have them.

Let's see... trip to Las Vegas (Pepsi), TV (WMMR), trip to Barcelona for the Olympics (Coors), 3 San Diego trips (Coors, TV Show, and I forget), Trip to Toronto for a Yankees game (I forget!), many T-shirts, guitar picks, odds and ends, and $10,000 cash from Miller Beer's "Silver Ticket". (I sent for a ton of free game pieces, won from one of those)

These were all in the early '90's. I've entered a few after those, but they were going to computer entries then, and I didn't have any luck with them after that.

Well I just got back from LA, the contest was real, I was able to go to the world premiere of the Avengers! Had a good time, but had some complications, I don't want to focus on the complications but I will tell a few things that happened...

Waited a good 19 days before I got confirmation that I even won anything, took them 19 days to email me my invitation to the premiere, they could have planned that from the start, but the invitation was in an email, and they claimed the tickets were in the mail for the 19 days, so got a little worried they would never show up only to find out they were never sent and I had to pick them up there.

After picking them up I found out I had no red carpet access, also I was forced to go to the overflow theater instead of the main theater, so I decided to tell the guy I was supposed to be on the red carpet, 10 minutes later they allowed me to walk on the red carpet, I hung out behind some corporate execs, watched as the stars arrived, took some bad photos, but at least I wasn't behind a car lane and hundred press people. I walked up to the el capitan even though I only had tickets to the overflow at the grauman's chinese theater, and they told me to turn around, but it was fun to walk the red carpet, watched the movie, got free popcorn and free drinks, something I thought I'd never see in a movie theater, put on my iron man 3d glasses and enjoyed the show, after the show walked over to the el capitan which likely started 10 minutes later than my theater because Robert Jr. wasn't able to walk in there until 10 minutes later. Couldn't get up to the el capitan because it was guarded but just walked around the cars lined up and wearing a tuxedo gives you full access, I just walked around the fence and walked right up to the theater, walked up to Samuel L. Jackson, put my hand on his shoulder gently and asked if I could please have a photo, he ignored me and was busy tweeting a long tweet which I think didn't get tweeted because it was over 140 characters long, I'm not sure he knows that, he spent a good 7 minutes composing this tweet, I put my hand carefully on his shoulder again and he said "Stop punching me!" in a comedic way, and I said "I'm not punching you!" in a joking way, he began to tweet a 2nd tweet unless it was the same as the 1st tweet and he walked a bit forward and I didnt' follow him or take a photo but from a distance I asked a 2nd time if I could take a photo and he said in a hilarious quiet tone "Noooooooooooo!", so I respected his wishes and didn't take a single parazzi snap, but some lady with a big camera took a photo of the 2 of us, so hopefully one day I can find that photo. I told Samuel, when he was a distance away that "I'm here because I won a Dr Pepper contest" not knowing if he was listening to me he replied and said "Ahhhh DAMN!!!! really???" and he laughed, it was funny he was actually listening to me.

I was told at will call that I was invited to the after party but I think someone messed up because I never got my 2 tickets to the after party, so I basically was told I won world premiere tickets, and was given the impression it was a 1st class experience but ended up getting an extra ticket that the corporate guys and the press guys got, and I believe it was an extra corporate or press ticket because after 19 days of waiting for ticket confirmation I only got a positive response 2 days after I called up Dr Pepper and emailed the 3rd party contest company, until then I had zero confirmation, well it was still an amazing experience I will remember for a long time, the only celeb that wanted to get a photo with me was Clark Gregg, he plays a key role in the Avengers movie and does a great job at it, I saw all the stars from the movie but they were either tweeting or signing autographs for fans or being hounded by everyone but it was still very fun.

I posted a few photos on my twitter: twitter.com/razimus

Being a professional prize winner I can say yes, they are legit. Just too much stuff to be won out there. I have many times sufferd from what I call prize burnout from winning too much stuff. Once I even had a nightmare that I couldn't leave for work since my driveway was full of prize deliveries. I guess this was bound to happen, but once I had UPS, Fedex, USPS and DHL lined up at my house at the same time. It was exciting but embarrasing at the same time. Oh and I was also once a victum of post office employee theft.

The Mcdonalds Monoply was known to the sweepstakers as being fixed. Why? If the sweepstakers can't win it, no one can. Anyways, as part of Mcdonalds post scandel PR they had lottsa sweeps. I won a PSP from eating their apple salads. Which they got rid of. I really won't eat their burgers and fries so I usually don't bother with their more recent sweeps

Oh and I wanted to mention that the trips that you win are the best ever! You do things that you could never possibly imgine in your wildest dreams! Academy awards, doing a casting call with a star, cruises, $20,000 trip to Scotland, Hershey heaven (if I told you what all was included you would faint), trips to Vegas etc... You name it! I met taylor swift right before she became famous. I had her first CD even before she did! And before it was even released! I once even turned down tix to The scifi awards. Tix by innvitation only and Johnny depp was to be there. Groan!!!!

a reply to: elouina

The state of Ga. funds the Hope grant with their lottery. They did a survey and learned poor people buy most of the lottery tickets and upper middle class and up take advantage of the free college tuition. I know people who have won big. One was killed by her boyfriend because she dumped him BEFORE she won but he still felt entitled to a new truck. Another learned the hard way just taxes can break you if you dont invest or spend wisely. He is back to 9-5 but seems content. Another had just enough money to drink and drug to a early grave. Regardless, if you want to greatly improve your odds, find one of those people who always seem to win and let them enter for you (in your name of course). I promise you, it helps a lot !

a reply to: Razimus

Here's what I've won:

I won $5000 on a scratch off lottery ticket. I also won a $5000 bicycle in a bike frame design contest.

Not too huge in terms of money, but you asked.

Still you have my interest piqued because I did not know about the McDonalds' Monopoly scam!

S&Fs

I've won a couple grand from the lottery and won grand prize in a radio station contest years ago, that was valued at about 12 grand, plus a bunch of smaller prizes.

originally posted by: Earnesttub
a reply to: elouina

The state of Ga. funds the Hope grant with their lottery. They did a survey and learned poor people buy most of the lottery tickets and upper middle class and up take advantage of the free college tuition. I know people who have won big. One was killed by her boyfriend because she dumped him BEFORE she won but he still felt entitled to a new truck. Another learned the hard way just taxes can break you if you dont invest or spend wisely. He is back to 9-5 but seems content. Another had just enough money to drink and drug to a early grave. Regardless, if you want to greatly improve your odds, find one of those people who always seem to win and let them enter for you (in your name of course). I promise you, it helps a lot !

Actually, I did enter for others and did win them lots. Folks often sad that I had a rabbits foot stuck up my tush. But alas, I have tired of all the winning.

But it isn't just winning. Someone once asked, "have you ever not gotten your way"? Never thought about it before and my face froze in shock when I realized my answer. No....

Even once stopped what I think would have been a plane crash with me on it. Had a premo about a plane crash on a small island being circled by planes. Smeohow got a free upgrade to first class. In the first row, I saw the staff looking out the windows for takeoff. They said we had no radar when I asked the stewardess looking out my windiw. I told them not to and to wait until the planes stopped circling. Did I save us? Will never know,...