Those scratch cards.....

Bungalow Bill

Hey you know those scratch cards that you get in newspapers??
Well almost everyone always wins like a car or money or whatever.
Has anyone ever followed these things up??? Surely if they are as hoaxy as they appear then they wouldn't be given away with credible newspapers like the sunday independent.
Just a thought....

Winters

Im assuming you dont mean the actual National Lotto scratch cards.

The ones are are talking about are the weird free ones where you win but must call a €50,000,000 per minute phone number in order to be in with a chance of winning? They dont actually gurantee you win a car but gurantee that you have a chance at winning a car, or something to that sort.

You find them usually in the following crappy papers: Sun, Star, Mirror, Daily Mail etc.

bus77

An Post started putting them in with the mail aswell which is a disgrace:mad:

Bungalow Bill

Well they say stuff like, 'you have won a level 2 prize', which is either like a car or cash or a ps2 or something. Still though, if it is a hoax, how do they get away with it?

Explosive_Cornflake

My mother is a fool and she sometimes follows these things.
1) the phone call costs more than the prize
2)If its a holiday, its for one person, and to bring a second person, it costs quite a lot, and dates are very restrictive.

Winters

They are not a hoax, to a degree. They have to offer the prises they claim to offer [by law I believe] but the thing is [as posted above] they cost more to claim through premium phone calls then what you may actually win. You arnt guranteed to win the major prize of a holiday or car, thats just the incentive to get you to call so they can make money.

However someone does occasionally win a big prize, otherwise they would be shut down.

to bed.

de5p0i1er

There just con artists and I wouldn't touch them with a barge poll. I throw them in the fire as soon as I get them.

Kalina

I rang the specified number once after matching 3 symbols and being promised one of a list of ten great prizes. They sent me €650 travel vouchers; €500 for a holiday to Australia and the rest for anotherholiday. They had to be used with a particular travel agency that I never heard of and at a particular time of year but I never bothered following it up.

Woden

my mam followed one of them up and she got a cheque for something like 50c when the call would have cost more then that.

she rang up to give out and got fed the waffle about how it all works

you blatantly should just ring those numbers from work if ya can get away with it

data

JoeSchmoe

a friend rang one and got 500 euro worth of holiday vouchers, unfortunately it was made up of little vouchers, 20 off this holiday, 50 off this holiday, pretty worthless really.

Also they advertise that "you have won one of the following prizes, Car Holiday, 10000 euro, cool stereo, weekend for two in a UK hotel, motorbike etc etc"

What you actually win is the weekend in the UK holiday on one of those "stay for free if you buy all your meals in the hotel restaurant" deals. Like you see a lot of hotels offering in lean times. Once again pretty worthless.

I imagine someone at some stage has to win the big prizes but that might be only one prize a year or whatever.

Basically they have these hotel vouchers and this is an ingenious way of selling them, high price phone calls.

it reminds of adverts you'd see in magazine like loaded and FHM, "FREE PENKNIFE (or whatever) to every reader". ring this number £1 a minute, maximum lenght of call 20 minutes.

ignore

the cat

My friend got a ring.. with a crappy tiny green stone

DEmeant0r

I've never believed I could win something so easily, so I never tried before. These things are scams of course.

Agent Smith

i know someone who "won",
rang the number,
and revived a bloody pen.....
(altho it was in a plastic case)


and like 3 weeks later, we saw the pen he wone on sale in the 2 euro shop for "5 for €2)



the phone call cost hime like 8 euro, and the pen was worth 40 cents!



ha ha i say

Victor

Originally posted by Bungalow Bill
credible newspapers like the sunday independent

hahhahahahahahah :rolleyes:

Bungalow Bill

Originally posted by Victor
hahhahahahahahah :rolleyes:

Something funny victor???

sceptre

Have to confess I laughed too.

StickyMcGinty

i was reading one in the sky guide and it said you dont have to ring the number to get the claim code, you can send away for it!!

now thats worth doing!!

anyone eva read the terms & conditions on the back???!?!?!

_Whimsical_

Well we have waited four years but finally success...

Just thought I'd bump this thread with an update that might interest and change some opinions. A woman in Galway won E1.5 million a few weeks ago on one of the above mentioned free scratch cards. It fell out of her Sunday Mirror magazine.
I usually shake my paper when I'm buying it so these (formerly thought of as useless) cards fall out in the shop...no more though! It seems it might be worth everyones while scratching them after all !

slipss

credible newspapers like the sunday independent.

heh, good one.

slipss

crap, never mind, someone else made fun of that before me, have to start reading all the replies before I post.

slipss

To awnser your question, 99999 out of 100000 of the prizes are a stay at a hotel in some ****hole town only tuesday to thursday available, dinner breakfast or beds not included, we reserve the right to rape you on arrivale. In other words the odds of you winning anything other than a midweek break to some crappy b&b for a one night, two day stay in the middle of nowhere are about 100000 to 1 and the reason they can give away 99999 of these breaks is because only 1 in 99999 people will be stuborn enough to actually take them up on the offer. Step 1. Collect underpants. Step.2 ??????. Step 3. Profit.

Irish Wolf

chilly wrote: »

Well we have waited four years but finally success...

Just thought I'd bump this thread with an update that might interest and change some opinions. A woman in Galway won E1.5 million a few weeks ago on one of the above mentioned free scratch cards. It fell out of her Sunday Mirror magazine.
I usually shake my paper when I'm buying it so these (formerly thought of as useless) cards fall out in the shop...no more though! It seems it might be worth everyones while scratching them after all !

:eek:

Perhaps the most spectacular story I've ever read (and by story, I mean zombie thread)

_Whimsical_

slipss wrote: »

credible newspapers like the sunday independent.

heh, good one.

Anyone looking at this reads and posts on After Hours. We all have little to be snobby about in the reading material department tbh.
They have those cards in nearly all papers now. I get the Sunday Times and The Independent on Sunday (UK rather than Irish) and I always shake out at least 2.

Tha Gopher

Bungalow Bill wrote: »

Something funny victor???

LOL

Ah the Sindo. Im sure you can place bets at 500/1 that the edition in 7 weeks time wont have a story about how posh girls like cocaine. The National Enquirer has more reliable coverage. Im all for free speech but the Sindo simply shouldnt be allowed to operate.

Super Sidious

4 Year old thread...nice!

Is there an artical or proof of this woman winning 1.5mill? Kinda like the bonds, everyone knows someone who knows of someone whos won...

slipss

chilly wrote: »

Anyone looking at this reads and posts on After Hours. We all have little to be snobby about in the reading material department tbh.
They have those cards in nearly all papers now. I get the Sunday Times and The Independent on Sunday (UK rather than Irish) and I always shake out at least 2.

The difference being nobody that reads After Hours claims it to be credible, and I'm sure if after hours had an editorial it wouldn't go on and on and on and on about how it is so so sincere and how it brings you hard hitting serious journalistic exclusives that definatley aren't in the Sun or the Star the very same day or usually two or three days before. Snobby? I wouldn't go that far, maybe anti-pretentious would be a better description. (now there probably isn't such a phrase as anti-pretentious and there are probably a few spelling and/or grammar mistakes in that post, don't call me on them or I'll sh1t on your door step.....that'll learn ya).

_Whimsical_

flynner13 wrote: »

4 Year old thread...nice!

Is there an artical or proof of this woman winning 1.5mill? Kinda like the bonds, everyone knows someone who knows of someone whos won...

There is indeed proof. I should've included that earlier. It's a little awkward to link to:
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=3f0LE16zk5T1&PBID=8f03b48a-7f66-4471-bcce-b85b77dae5d9
You then turn to page 9 and there is even a picture of her posing with her cheque.

slipss wrote: »

The difference being nobody that reads After Hours claims it to be credible, and I'm sure if after hours had an editorial it wouldn't go on and on and on and on about how it is so so sincere and how it brings you hard hitting serious journalistic exclusives that definatley aren't in the Sun or the Star the very same day or usually two or three days before. Snobby? I wouldn't go that far, maybe anti-pretentious would be a better description. (now there probably isn't such a phrase as anti-pretentious and there are probably a few spelling and/or grammar mistakes in that post, don't call me on them or I'll sh1t on your door step.....that'll learn ya).

Point taken on the AH issue and I agree. I didn't mean it as confrontationally as you took it to be honest. I quite like AH for what it does. I hate the "SIndo" as it happens and I did snigger at the above comments too. Still I knew what the OP meant. You presume papers like the Sunday Independent have a business reputation to protect if not a journalistic one. Including fliers that serve solely to mislead and defraud your costumer base should by rights damage your brand .These days the Sunday Independent trades more on being a well known brand then on anything else.
In response to your closing line : Classy. It was quite a decent retort up until then too:)

FunkZ

I won the Bolton football team on one of them, wasn't arsed following it up though.

Tha Gopher

FunkZ wrote: »

I won the Bolton football team on one of them, wasn't arsed following it up though.

Givens and Houghton must be raging they never thought of making the Ireland gig a competition open to The Star sports readership.