Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990 TAG: 9004070104
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PERRY DRAKE GWINNETT (Ga.) DAILY-NEWS
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Long
And answering machines.
And magazine subscriptions.
And grocery stores.
Only this gold is in the form of merchandise and cash prizes won in sweepstakes and contests.
In 1990, over a quarter of a billion dollars will be awarded to thousands of contestants - all in the name of product promotion.
Promoters use sweepstakes to peddle everything from magazine subscriptions to time-sharing condos in Florida.
Sweepstakes are one of the fastest growing types of promotional campaigns used by consumer product companies, according to marketing experts.
About 72 percent of 102 companies use sweepstakes to promote their products, according to a recent nationwide marketing survey.
Charities and other not-for-profit organizations have also jumped on the sweepstakes bandwagon, offering shots at cash and luxury goods with each donation or membership sign up.
Thousands of prizes, including automobiles, campers, boats, free groceries, electronic equipment, real estate and everybody's favorite - cool, hard cash - are given away.
Just who is winning all these prizes?
"People who play sweepstakes are as diverse a group as you can find," said Simon McCaffery, managing editor of Winning! magazine, a nationally published how-to guide for beginning gaming enthusiasts.
"I interviewed a guy who's an advertising executive in Pittsburgh. This guy makes a lot of money and lives quite well," McCaffery said.
"He won about four cars last year. He's been on television and the subject of a lot of articles."
McCaffery said he doesn't think greed alone motivates the contestants. The hook for most of the 13-year-old magazine's 250,000 subscribers seems to be the anticipation of winning.
"The chief enjoyment that they're getting out of it is kind of like playing the lottery," McCaffery said. "It's that dream of winning."
How can you increase your chances of sharing in this shower of wealth? Is their some secret formula or ancient ritual that guarantees the jackpot?
"No," McCaffery said. But contestants can increase their odds of winning by following a few simple rules beginning with the most important - have fun.
"If they really don't enjoy doing it, because it can get kind of tedious filling out all those forms, they really shouldn't do it," McCaffery said. "It's really a hobby like any other that they should derive some type of enjoyment out of."
Another important rule is to "follow the contest rules explicitly to the letter," he said.
"It's very easy after you have entered a lot of sweepstakes to just assume that the rules are very similar in each case, and if you do that chances are going to get your entry disqualified," McCaffery said.
Contestants should make sure to legibly print - that's print - the information on each entry blank, McCaffery said.
"A big portion, maybe 20 percent in any given contest or more, are disqualified because either the entry is so illegible that it never arrives there in time or the people at the judging agency cannot read the address or the person's name," McCaffery said.
Stick to nationally sponsored contests, McCaffery said. Those include Publisher's Clearinghouse, American Family, Reader's Digest Sweepstakes and even Playboy magazine.
"Those types of promotions are very much legal and in the black, and they honestly do award what they say," McCaffery said.
Enter sweepstakes with shorter deadlines, which cuts down on the number of competitors.
"Some of the deadlines for entering may be a six-month to eight-month period," McCaffery said.
"So in that period of time up to a million people may have entered or at least several thousands people will enter those type of things."
Another rule to follow is to send more than one entry, depending on how valuable the prizes are.
"That's how most people go about doing it," McCaffery said. "They mail in more than one entry, and they do it over the entire length of the contest.
A number of other rules to follow are:
Enter sweepstakes offering multiple grand prizes. It increases your chances to win.
Look for sweepstakes awarding plenty of quality secondary prizes.
Enter only those contests offering prizes you want and that you could easily sell. Unfortunately, your winnings will be taxed.
Select sweepstakes requiring long qualifying statements. It helps to weed out competition.
Enter second-chance drawings for valuable and often unawarded prizes.
Enter sweepstakes with entrant requirements that favor you. Some are only to teens or are valid only in certain states.
So you've followed the rules to the hilt.
Said a prayer.
Sent in your entry blanks.
And now you're waiting for the mailman to deliver that sleek, new sports car any day now.
And waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.
"In most sweepstakes that's kind of what people who enter do," McCaffery said. "They send out all of their entries, and they kind of play the waiting game.
"If they get an affidavit and a letter that means they won something, but companies obviously cannot send letters to millions of people who might enter."
What companies do is make available a list of all the major prize winners that you can send for at the conclusion of the promotion, McCaffery said.
With any field that's enjoyed the surge of popularity that sweepstakes have, con men have moved in looking to take advantage of people's desire to get something for nothing.
"They [sweepstakes] sound awfully good," said Ed Smith, president of Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Atlanta Inc. And for that reason, thousands of people are scammed yearly.
"If I got a letter saying `you may be the grand-prize winner,' the first thing I'd ask myself is `Why me? Am I that good a person or what?' " Smith said.
A little healthy skepticism combined with knowledge of how sweepstakes con men operate can help you avoid being ripped off, Smith said.
"The reason so many people fall for these scams is because they think they're getting something for nothing," Smith said.
Be wary of those contests run by unfamiliar companies announcing that you've been selected for a free vacation, Smith said.
"You would have to make a deposit and pay your own transportation there and back and maybe attend a sales presentation while you're there," Smith said.
You should avoid any company that requires you to call a 1-900 number as part of the contest, Smith said.
"They give you a 1-900-whatever-the-number-is to verify your prize but there's a $9.90 call. It's going to be charged to your telephone bill," he said.
And never give out credit card numbers, under any circumstances, over the telephone, Smith said.
"I would never give out my credit card number to an unknown company or unknown person particularly over the telephone," Smith said. "You could be held liable for any unauthorized charges made to it."
Remember, that it should never cost you more than the price of a 25-cent stamp to enter a sweepstakes.
"Any time a person gets a sweepstakes in the mail that asks for money beyond 25-cent postage to mail their entry in, they should question it," he said.
Check out an unfamiliar company with the Better Business Bureau, state attorney general's office or local consumer agency if you have doubts. 3 1
by CNB