Online Sweepstakes – What You Need To Know
Picture this – you’re online, surfing the web for information before wandering onto a site with a giant blinking banner, “Giveaway! Just click here! Win $100,000!” If only it were that easy.
Before entering any type of online sweepstakes, you need to do your homework to determine whether or not the sweepstakes is legitimate. But first, here are a few quick facts about online sweepstakes – what you need to know about these contests.
Sweepstakes are games of chance. Unlike televised game shows, where your knowledge of words or trivia will win you prizes, a sweepstakes is a gamble. Similar to lotteries, you’re dependant on your name or number being chosen at random in order to win the prize. The only difference is, while nationally run lotteries are heavily regulated and the winners are almost always guaranteed a prize (except under rare circumstances), an online sweepstakes is not regulated, so even though you may be the chosen winner, you may receive nothing.
The Growth of Online Sweepstakes
Online sweepstakes have grown in popularity for several reasons, one being the ability to reach many people. Whereas a locally run contest at a small store may only reach several hundred people, one on the internet may reach hundreds of thousands. This makes online sweepstakes a great way to increase awareness of a shop or a brand. However, being able to reach many people can backfire when that lack of regulation leaves the door open for scammers.
This does not mean that every online contest is a scam. Many are legitimate. The trick is in knowing which ones are safe to enter, and which ones will leave you feeling scammed. Before you go online and start entering online sweepstakes – here’s what you need to know in order to see if they are legitimate.
The first thing to do when entering an online sweepstakes is to read the fine print. By signing up for this contest, are you going to be added to a mailing list? This isn’t a sign of an illegitimate contest, but it may leave you annoyed, especially when this list spams you several times a day.
What’s a requirement of the sweepstakes? Do you need to give out more than just your name and email address? Be careful when distributing this information all over the web. While some contests may want a phone number and mailing address for their records, those that ask for money up front, your bank account information or credit card numbers, or your social security or citizen identification number are scams. Giving out this information opens you up to identity theft or worse.
Another thing that should be checked is if the online form is secure. Even if you’re only entering your name and address, the form should have secure socket layer encrypting to ensure that no one else will have access to this information. Plus, you need to check out the website itself. Do a who.is search to find out the country of origin and background information on the website. If the site is supposed to be based in the UK, but is hosted out of Nigeria (a common location for scammers) you should be wary.
The main thing about online sweepstakes – what you need to know is that as long as you’re careful about which ones you enter, is that they can be fun. You never know – you might even win at your next online sweepstakes!
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