St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 28, 2010 – The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning senior citizens and other consumers to be wary of sweepstakes and other contests that link the chances of winning to the purchase of merchandise.
Several St. Louis area consumers have told the BBB that they or their parents purchased thousands of dollars of junk in desperate attempts to win cash sweepstakes prizes.
One 77-year-old grandmother said her husband spent an estimated $7,000 on mail-order products linked to a sweepstakes he was convinced he could win. He hoped to use the winnings to replace his hearing aid and take her to Italy on a dream vacation to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. He won nothing.
Michelle Corey, president and CEO of the St. Louis BBB said the couple’s story offers a poignant illustration of what can happen when a trusting consumer, or a senior with diminished faculties, becomes convinced that he or she is just one purchase away from winning a dream prize.
“The odds of winning anything in a sweepstakes like this are very remote,” Corey said. “But the mailings can seem so enticing, so alluring, that they can suck consumers in, often breaking their hearts and sometimes breaking their bank accounts.”
Some sweepstakes companies air television or radio commercials urging consumers to watch for their mailings, implying that prizes will be awarded soon.
The mailings often contain enticements that suggest a prize is about to be awarded in a consumer’s local area. Some mailings are personalized and refer to the recipient by name. Often, there are special tickets or tokens that must be affixed to entry forms. Packets also may include offers of household products, coin sets, beauty products and other items.
Disclosures about the chances of winnings may get lost in all the paper stuffed in the envelope. The odds of winning are often 1 in 100 million or less. Buying products has no effect on a consumer’s miniscule chances of winning.
The St. Louis man apparently was drawn in by the personalized message from the sweepstakes, which convinced him he would win one of the big prizes.
“I was taken,” he said. “I’m a stupid old man.”
The couple’s daughter said her father ordered several magazine subscriptions as well as merchandise. Once she and her sister found out what was happening, they felt compelled to take over their parents’ finances and have their mail sent to one of the daughters’ homes. The daughter notified the sweepstakes company to stop sending anything else to her parents’ home.
The BBB offers the following advice for consumers doing business with mail-order or Internet companies offering sweepstakes prizes:
- Do your homework. Ask whether this is, in fact, a legitimate company and whether it has awarded sweepstakes prizes in the past.
- Study your odds of winning. Federal law requires companies to include a notice outlining odds of winning various prizes.
- Understand that making a purchase does not increase your chance of winning. Under law, anyone entering a company’s sweepstakes contest has an equal chance of winning whether he or she orders anything.
- Monitor the activities of loved ones carefully to keep them from spending large amounts of money in attempts to win a sweepstakes.
- If you have any concerns about a sweepstakes, contact the BBB at www.bbb.org or call 314-645-3300.
Contacts: Michelle Corey, President & CEO, 314-645-3300, mcorey@stlouisbbb.org or Bill Smith, Trade Practice Investigator, 314-645-3300, tpc1@stlouisbbb.org