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The Andrews, Barton & Blaine Sweepstakes Scam
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Origin: THC Freedom Online BBS, 604-361-4549
Consumer Warning
$$$ Phony Sweepstakes Scam $$$
Some of you may have received a "Sweepstakes" mailer recently from "DAM
Inc." or "Andrews, Barton and Blaine" of San Clemente, California.
THIS "SWEEPSTAKES" IS A SCAM!
In the mailer, an official-looking letter tells you that you have
definitely won a cash prize. Not "you may have won" or "if you submit the
winning entry we'll say YOU HAVE WON" or any of the other common dodges
you've seen in sweepstakes before, no, this letter tells you that you
have DEFINITELY won a prize.
However, to claim the prize, you have to call a 1-900 number. This
number costs $4.99 a minute and connects to a voice response system
which speaks v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, so that you are forced to spend at
least 8 minutes on the line. Meaning, of course, that it will cost
about $40 to claim your cash award.
But take a look at the rules on the back. It states the odds of
winning: most prizes have a one in 4.9 million chance of winning (the
largest of these prizes is $10,295) except for one: You have a 1 in 1
chance of winning $1.37. In other words, you have virtually NO chance
of winning a real prize, and it will cost you $40 to that 1-900 number
to get the prize you HAVE won, which is $1.37.
A representative for our local Better Business Bureau recently appeared
on a radio talk program to warn listeners about this scam. Apparently,
in the course of investigating this scam, she actually called the 1-900
number, stayed on for 6 minutes and was charged $30.00, and eventually
got a cheque for $1.37.
The cheque BOUNCED! Insufficient funds. That cost her an additional
$15 in bank fees.
The rules are on the very back page and they are voluminous. The
intended victim of this scam is unlikely to read them because of the
large volume of dry legalese, but they should. It's truly scary.
First, nowhere does it identify Andrews, Barton & Blaine as a certified
public accounting firm, nor a law firm, nor anything else. AB&B could
be a dentist's office for all we know.
Second, although they are required by law to inform you that mail
entries are accepted in lieu of the expensive phone call, they go on
(in the body of the mailer) to strongly discourage mailing because
"Mail entries require hand processing and manual computer data entry
and may take several days to dispatch". They also prescribe a very
specific format for mail-in entries and reserve the right to discard
any entry which is not up to snuff - which could be based on very
subjective criteria!
But it gets better. The offer is void in 28 states, plus Puerto Rico
and Quebec!
Note that the scam is being run out of California. One of the states
in which the sweepstakes is void is (guess where) California!
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho,
Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin,
West Virginia, Wyoming, Puerto Rico AND Quebec. "And where prohibited
by law" which simply covers their butts in case they missed a state -
they can simply refuse to honor any prizes from that state, they might
have to refund 900 charges but it with slick enough lawyers that "where
prohibited" phrase will keep them out of the defendant's box.
Worst of all, because they are in the United States, they are virtually
untouchable by individuals who realize they've been scammed. After
all, would YOU travel to California to sue for your $30-40 back? No-one
would, and that is what AB&B is counting on. U.S. authorities won't
investigate because the frauds are occurring in Canada, and Canadian
authorities can't because the perpetrators are in the U.S. What's
more, technically this scam isn't even a fraud because everything you
need to know is disclosed in the fine print - it's the "sucker
quotient" they're counting on not to read or understand the fine print
and call the 900 number. The phone company will not help you, and why
should they? After all, YOU placed the call. And the final insult is
the fact that you don't even get the $1.37 because the cheque will
bounce - also not a fraud in Canada - your only remedy is a civil suit,
and are you really going to pursue $1.37? Being Canadian and
unfamiliar with U.S. law I'm not certain about this, but I think that
the states in which the offer is "void" is probably a list of states
where bouncing a cheque is a criminal offence.
You're now armed with the REAL facts on this scam. If you choose to
call that 900 number anyway, expect your phone bill to be $40 bigger
and DON'T expect to ever receive a prize. This is not the first scam
of this kind to appear and it certainly won't be the last.
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