A Scratch 4 Cash card
Consumer NZ welcomes the Commerce Commission’s decision to investigate the recent “Scratch 4 Cash” competition.
Based on its initial assessment, the Commission says the competition breaches the Fair Trading Act. It may also breach the Gambling Act.
Over 600,000 “Scratch 4 Cash” cards were distributed with the Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday on 23 and 24 May 2009. The cards promised “huge” prizes could be won. But the competition was really a promotion for a mobile phone subscription service. To enter, you had to text a code to a given number; sending this text meant you were subscribed to the service at a cost of $10 a week. You had to read the fine print to find out this.
This scheme was run by a Singapore-based company called Singtext Pte Limited. It applied for the text code used in the competition through another company, Sonic Mobile. Telecom and Vodafone say they suspended the text code after becoming aware of how the competition was being run. Both say they will refund money to anyone who signed up.
We think this promotion should never have got off the ground. If you’re ever tempted by a “text-to-enter” competition, always check the fine print carefully. If sending the text means you’re committing to regular payments, we strongly recommend you don’t enter. It’s not a real competition.
More from consumer.org.nz
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- Scams - how to spot a scam and how to protect yourself
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Although both Telecom & Vodaphone representatives fronted up to the Consumer Institute & on TV One's Fair Go programme with an assurance that they would refund the $10 their customers lost in this scam,Vodaphone has been very slippery about making the refund.Vodaphone's call-centre staff (in Egypt) make one excuse after another over more than 4 weeks before i finally pushed them into refunding my $10.If I had not been careful to check,each call would also have cost me $1.I have the impression that Vodaphone has been dragging its feet about making the refund to its customers in the hope that we will get fed up & give up trying to claim the refund OR that we will just forget about it.Keep after them!Barry