Fake scratchcards

[MAD BUTCHER]

When I opened a newspaper last Sunday, a `scratchcard` fell out which I believed to be a Mail on Sunday promotion. (I don`t know why I made that mistake only that I was not fully awake).

On scratching and getting two matches for a Top Treat and then getting Three Matches for a Cash Payout I realised that the cards were actually the racket that make you pay phone charges to claim a prize worth less than the cost of the calls.

However, presumably there is now some actual high money paid out by these people, although obviously their take from the phone calls must still exceed the prizes.

So having `won` a cash payout of between �10. and �1.million, I would need to claim by spending �1.50 per minute for six minutes i.e. �9 to get �10 minimum.

Has anyone any experience of winning on these cards? - if I had realised it wasn`t issued by the newspaper I would have dumped it. And just how do they make their money?

[voltr4m4x]

Throw it in the bin and forget it !!!

[buildersmate]

They make their money the way you describe it - though the cost of applying for the lowest value prize must exceed the value of that prize (don't know why the example you quote doesn't). The odds of winning the top prize are very long indeed.

[dzug]

There's probably a delivery charge for the prize to be added to the phone call cost

[mandimoo]

i won a week in tenerife like this, accommodation only. flights cost �150 each. they hoped to entrap us in a timeshare hardsell on our first full day there. lucky for us the hotel mixed up our arrival date. we arrived a day earlier than expected and i guess we were extremely lucky our room was available and we were allowed in, but as a result we completely missed the meet and greet by the timeshare salesperson, so we had a cheap holiday in a very luxury appartment, for a very good price.

[dzug]

What gets me is how apparently reputable organisations (some of the catalogue companies for example) distribute these scratchcards and similar with their mailings.