The Downfalls of Entering Sweepstakes, Contests, and Giveaways Online

Entering sweepstakes and giveaways online is becoming a big hit with surfers. Thus how many advertisements there are claiming you will be entered to win "blah blah blah". On the other hand, the ones that claim if you answer this question you will be entered into our giveaway of a certain amount. As alluring as these types of contests, giveaways and sweepstakes are many users don't see the terms of service, or the other downfalls of entering these.

Many of these marketing promotions are to get you to order items, or complete offers to be entered in their giveaways. If you don't complete their offers according to their liking, you are not going to be entered to win anything.

There are many legitimate giveaways, contests, and sweepstakes out there such as Disney, but even these types of things that appear legitimate offers can have downfalls too. An example of one such sweepstakes is HSN. HSN sweepstakes that ended back in June, I am still trying to get removed from their mailing list. Calls, emails, and spam reports lead to nothing more then their customer service representatives lying to me claiming I been removed, only to receive another message 3 weeks later. This has been going on for 3 months now.

Another one to be concerned about is PCH (Publishers Clearing House). PCH may be a legitimate sweepstakes, but there are loads of mailings that come in the process, and spam advertisements wanting you to order magazines.

Suggestions when entering contests, giveaways, and sweepstakes online:

Do not use an email address you don't want spam.

Be sure to check your email account for any prize notifications you may have won. The problem with that though is the amount of spam and fraud emails makes it very difficult to tell what is real and what is fake. This is why, whatever email address you use for these contests, giveaways, and sweepstakes use an email address no one has, and has a couple of numbers mixed about in it to make it harder to guess. A name followed by a series of numbers is easy to guess and get random spam.

Always read the terms of service when entering any type of these contests, giveaways, and sweepstakes. If you see a * on the banner you clicked that advertised whatever it is you are entering, that means there is a catch.

If you must complete offers in order to enter the giveaways, contests, and sweepstakes it's really not worth it. The amount of spam is outrageous, and often times the offers that you must sign up for, you have to pay for things, like a magazine subscription. How is that worth entering sweepstakes when there are free and clear ones such as Disney to enter?