|
The iPhone is arguably the most popular smartphone device on the market. Companies and websites have been quick to pick up on demand for this great gadget, featuring it as a prize to attract new potential customers. You can find many win an iPhone competitions, sweepstakes and raffles online, but finding the best ones can make a real difference to your chances of actually winning an iPhone prize. Most of all, following a few simple guidelines can help protect your personal information and avoid unscrupulous promotions.
Whether it's winning an iPhone by completing a survey, following a website on Facebook or Twitter or simply registering as a new user on a website, finding iPhone competitions online isn't difficult.
Unfortunately, some iPhone sweepstakes aren't as attractive as they appear to be and we often get contacted by users asking advice about finding the best iPhone competitions online. Following a few simple guidelines can help avoid avoid iPhone promotions that give little or no chance of actually winning a prize, versus picking genuine prize draws. Tip 1: Who's running the iPhone competition?
A little research can help distinguish between professional iPhone sweepstakes organisers and more opportunistic websites set up to harvest personal contact details without the intention of actually giving away a prize.
Look at the website's track record: how long has it been operational, what are the promoter's credentials and how many prizes have they given away or competitions have they run?
Transparency is key when it comes to online competitions and professional promoters usually provide full contact details should you wish to enquire about their promotions. Genuine competition organisers also usually provide registration details including their registration address, company and ICO numbers (for UK companies).
Tip 2: What can you find out about past winners?
Although many websites do, a small number do not disclose the identities of past winners, or provide very basic details that can fail to reassure.
Spend a little time looking at the names of the winners, any quotes they may have provided and if available, review the winners' photos. If names are too neutral (e.g. John Smith), quotes too anonymous or too short or images appear to have been copied off another website or purchased online, this suggests the website hasn't actually given away any prize yet.
For example, the UK supercar and gadget prize competition company Best of the Best goes even further and provide recorded interviews and videos of their winners to convince users of their professional intentions.
Tip 3: Where are the Terms & Conditions?
Genuine prize competitions, sweepstakes and prize draws should always come with explicit Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) outlining the full details of how the promotion is to be run.
Amongst other things, this includes information about eligibility and how to enter, closing and drawing dates, company information and how winners are picked.
If T&Cs are out of date, missing or incomplete, this suggests competition promoters are either deliberately omitting these details or seeking to keep the promotion mechanics as flexible as possible.
Either way, it is best to stay away from competitions that don't provide full and updated T&Cs.
Tip 4: How does the iPhone prize draw work?
A wide variety of types of competitions and sweepstakes can be found online, with new games created every week. Regardless of the type of game involved, the mechanisms are usually relatively similar.
Whether it's playing a flash game, participating in a random draw, answering multiple choice questions or solving a puzzle, competitions can usually be broken down into 2 distinct categories: skill-based prize competitions and prize draws based on luck.
The degree of skill and mechanism for picking the winner usually determines whether a promotion falls into one category or the other. Most free iPhone competitions tend to be prize draws or sweepstakes as opposed to genuine skill-based competitions.
While both types of competitions can be legal; unless it is organised by a registered charity and satisfies certain criteria, in the UK raffles are illegal if they require payment from players.
In other words, if the iPhone competition doesn't ask you to demonstrate skill yet requires you to purchase a ticket, this usually means it is illegal. Avoid entering such competitions as the odds the competition will be completed and a winner actually picked are slim.
Some iPhone prize draws are based on sending a text message via a paid service to qualify for the prize. Take care when entering these types of prize draws as they can involve signing up to an expensive service that charges you every time you receive a text message.
If you are being asked to subscribe to a paid service as part of the competition, make sure you understand all the costs involved and what exactly the service will be.
Tip 5: What information are they asking for?
Although everyone wants to win an iPhone for free, the price of entry could be higher than it appears at first. Some competitions are little more than a way of getting users to reveal their mobile phone numbers and emails to sign them up to paid services further down the line.
Although it is reasonable for competition organisers to want to collect your details for marketing purposes and to identify the winner of the prize, one should always take a moment to consider what details are being asked.
Check which fields are compulsory, and which ones are optional on registration. Are you comfortable giving away this information? More importantly, ask yourself why the promoter needs these details.
Be particularly vigilant if a website requests your credit card details even though the competition is free to enter. There could be a good reason for this, but it is usually best to avoid revealing such information unless it is specifically required.
Tip 6: How professional is the website?
These days it is relatively easy to set up a simple website that looks and feels professional. If you come across a site that looks out of date or obviously hasn't required much effort, consider how much effort is likely to go into the running of the competition itself.
Tip 7: Can I opt out?
If you are asked as a player to sign up to a service - even if it is free - there should usually be ways of opting out if you are no longer interested. This includes emails which should always provide information about how to unsubscribe if you want to.
If no information is provided about how to unsubscribe to a service once you've entered the competition, contact the organisers to find out more. Only considering entering the prize draw once you are fully satisfied about what is involved.
If you enter many competitions, consider setting up a separate email address used strictly for the purpose of entering sweepstakes and prize draws. This can be an effective way of screening potential junk mail invevitably sent by some unscrupulous organisers.
The bottom line is: use your judgement! Winning an iPhone for free is very tempting but given the value of personal information today, unfortunately some disreputable competition organisers try to take advantage of the public's lack of awareness of some of the risks involved.
Thankfully, you can find many genuine iPhone competitions online if you know where to look. Our iPhone Prize Directory lists the latest iPhone sweepstakes and competitions we come across online, each one screened by our team before it is published.
What do you think? Have you ever come across iPhone competitions or sweepstakes you were unsure of? What do you look out for when entering competitions to win an iPhone for free? Your thoughts and opinions are welcome. |
|
|
These days I watch out especially if they ask for payment. Bookmarking this page! cheers
Good advice
By: Jack () on 07-09-2011