Automated Competition Entries - Are You Losing Out?
- 14 Comment
So you spend hour after hour entering competitions, visiting sites and finding answers - how would you feel then if the prize was won by someone who’d never even visited the site and didn’t even know about the competition until a WEM (winning email) appears in their inbox? Not good I expect! Well, sadly folks this kind of thing can happen! Automated competition services offer people who pay a subscription fee a way of entering competitions without ever doing anything themselves. They just pay and the automated service does the “hard work”.
Recently one Loquax user reported a problem with their competition:
I have a free prize draw on my website, I normally get a couple of hundred entries a month, I have had over 600 in 12 hours! All of which from the same kind of email address and all only provding the first initial, surname and first line of an address, all of these are different
Now 600 extra entries, all from people not even visiting the site, is 600 less chances of winning! And unless sites are made aware of these things, the situation may get worse! Automated entries aren’t good for Loquax (especially if we’re finding the comps and then an automated service is using us - as has happened), but they’re not good for compers or the promoters. Promoters may well have extra entries, but 600 sets of details from people who are using competition specific emails and don’t even know about their site is pretty worthless.
So What Can Be Done?
The best thing that can be done is contact your favourite sites and ask them if they’re aware of automated entries? We’re already making sites aware of this issue through Loquax! Promoters can take steps to prevent automated entries by using CAPTCHA images and random questions.
Also more attention needs to be made with regards IP addresses of entrants - which means analysing entry patterns and entry details. A simple line in the rules “automated entries, bulk entries and third party entries will be disqualified” helps, but the promoter needs to ensure that this rule is implemented.
Are you concerned by automated entries? Do you think they’re fair? Do you run your own competition and wondered where your entries come from? We’d love to hear from you - we think it’s an important issue that needs to be tackled by compers and promoters - but do you agree?
If you think automated entries should be disqualified why not send an email to your favourite sites and let them know your concerns!
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14 Comments on this post
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relisys222 said:
I enjoy finding the answers…and visiting other sites I`ve found some great sites through comps that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. I can’t really understand why anyone would want to automatic entries - it takes some of the fun out of comping
January 18th, 2008 at 10:42 pm -
beckslayer said:
thats just lazy, and spoils the whole point of doing competitons.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:53 pm -
carol gardner said:
I’m afraid last year I had an email from one of these sites, and thought it sounded great to enter hundreds of comps a month without even doing anything other than in their wording “spending less then the price of postage stamps for them to do all the leg work. Within a month I realised it was wrong and tried to cancel my subsciption, I was unable to do this, I have send numous emails to them over the year, all to no avail, I haven’t won a single competition via their site to my knowledge, as I log all the comps I enter and check when prizes arrive. Having learned more about comping as I go along, I love entering the comps and get a buzz when they pay off, and a letter, prize or email arrives with congratulations. I regret ever joining them and am still trying to get my money back, which they promise but when you try to claim it they try to offer you another year of free comping which I keep refusing. If any one is thinking about joining believe me it is not worth it, your mail box will be filled with loads of junk mail, and as it says above sometimes twenty or thirty in the same day from the same person. I’m sure most of the junk is down to this site, as I use two email accounts and my usual comping one never receives the amount that the one set up for the prizedraw centre does. It is lazy, you have no control over what you enter so could win things that you really don’t want, and deprive an avid comper who may have been trying for all year to win it.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:21 am -
demesio said:
I actually see comping as a hobby as i know do most people. It does not seem much of a hobby to have someone else just enter for you.I also have discovered some great sites through comping. , My general knowledge as also improved, in many areas. My oh is always asking me how i know things .I feel that i put a lot of effort into my comping as does everyone on here.A lot of people on this sight go out of their way to help others finding extra comps to enter etc.I personally feel that automated entry makes a bit of a mockery out of competitions.We are aware that we need to be lucky to win a competition.If we are up against this sort of thing, we will need a miracle.It does seem unfair towards the promoters. To be honest i do enter competitions on occasions where i have no interest in what the promoters have to offer.But again i have returned to a sight at a later date to make a purchase. I do like to feel that i stand a chance of winning.I know we find the security codes a bit of a pain sometimes, but at least these ensure that a real person is entering.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:25 am -
sasba said:
Why does everything have to be taken over by something that thinks is better, ooohhh yeah it would be great for prizes to land but the whole ponit is when i win a prize it will be something i like and entered for,what fun would it be for money to be taken out of my bank account getting no communiction with anyone, not like here where a problem shared etc etc, this ones are making money for doing nothing, while all the good people on loquax are doing it from there hearts, i totaly love comping and love if i ever get a prize for me or my little boy, my luck has been really dry this last while and this now is obvisoly why so many so us are not getting any wins. ooohhh makes me mad
January 19th, 2008 at 1:19 am -
bonfire said:
Years ago, before everyone used the internet, I signed up to something called “the must win club” or similar name. They “guaranteed” wins. After 12 months they agreed that I hadn’t won so gave me another 12 months free. It could have gone on and on!
The point is that the subscriber’s to these services don’t get a good deal out it either. Each subscriber in the example mentioned was up against at least 600 entries for every competition.My main concern is “killing the goose that laid the golden egg”. If comps start being seen by promoters as a farce then they’ll just find other ways to promote.
The BBC were one of the people that had problems with phone-in comps it has meant they’ve stopped doing them although they are expected to be back soon. On Motd they said the next goal of the month would have a prize.I have to admit if the “CAPTCHA” system is the random letters and numbers then I struggle with it as well. Why do they mix lower case “L” and upper “i” not to mention “o” and “0″ and is that a “q” or a “nine”??
January 19th, 2008 at 12:07 pm -
Naomi17 said:
I think its cheating after all if a company is good enough to run competitions the least you can do is visit the website in fact i have spent a lot on line because of competitions, i hope that helps the site and shows we do look.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pm -
car01e said:
i too enjoy visiting sites and have ended up purchasing from sites i would never have heard of if the competition hadnt been on loquax.
hopefully more companies will use software to stop automated entries as it is totally unfair.
carolex
January 19th, 2008 at 6:00 pm -
NicandJul said:
Its just unfair, they’ll spoil things for ‘real compers’ like us (and how long til they come up with something that can over-ride the letters/numbers system to stop automated entries?).
January 21st, 2008 at 2:01 pm -
Bevfairhead said:
I agree with a lot of the comments above. I have found some really unusual presents for myself and members of my family when visiting sites for competitions and learnt things of interest meaning that I do go back to the sites again or even register for more info which overall seems a fair exchange for winning prizes.
I also try to enter only competitions that are relevant or of interest to me, i.e. as part of a couple without kids, I don’t enter comps for family holidays or kids toys and books, etc. This seems to be people about people treating it as a business rather than a hobby anfd I suspect a lot of prizes (if you win) get flogged on Ebay straight away.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:53 pm -
small said:
If I do ever win a prize, I would far rather it was something that I actually wanted and had actively competed for. I too have bought from sites where I have entered competions and was only made aware of their products via Loquax.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:36 pm -
solsticediva said:
I too wonder where the fun is in getting someone else to do it but suspect as you say its about the winning (or not in our colleagues posts) for some people. I was reading this morning about the stamps being sold on ebay and how some people buy them to use on their comp entries and just feel saddened by the way some people try to cheat the system (knowingly or unknowingly) - I am not being judgmental here btw, but there really is no such thing as a free lunch and if you win and you have earnt it then i assume its more rewarding
hmm bring on my first win then
January 27th, 2008 at 6:59 pm -
WINNINGAWAY said:
It’s just ridiculous, what is the point in that. I actually enjoy comping and doing silly little things like making personalized postcards etc make me feel proud of my entry. I would feel embrassed if someone rang me up about a comp I haven’t even entered myself!!!
April 24th, 2008 at 10:00 am -
cyberman8 said:
I enter competitions to relax after a days work, using one oft he automated entry sites would just spoil it for me ban them all I say
August 31st, 2008 at 2:15 am