Free? Don’t Believe It

I received a flyer in the mail from a local car dealership. As usual, it was colorful and had that sense of hype all over it. Even at first glance, my impression was “junk.”

One thing unusual caught my eye. There was a “scratch-off” contest. You know the kind you scratch off and see if you won something. So I scratched and a number appeared. The instructions said if my number “x” matched the number “y” I won one of five prizes.

1. A flat panel T.V.
2. A DVD player
3. $10,000 in cash
4. A $1000 shopping spree
5. $100 in cash

My number matched their number and I began to laugh. I showed it to my son and said lets figure it out. So we read all the fine print, which of course told us most of the story - but not all.

Odds of winning for the 5 items above gave us the first clue. For numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5, the odds were 1/50,000. 50,000 the number of flyers mailed presumably. But what about the odds for #4? 49,996/50,000. It does not take a mathematician to figure out that everyone was winning #4.

So now this deceptive little flyer became even more intriguing. I called the dealership and asked them how #4 worked. The guy who answered said that if you won that prize you would be given membership to a website and would be able to pick out items for your home like televisions, tools, etc. and only have to pay a shipping and handling fee.

Yeah right! If all 49,996 of us claimed $1000 of merchandise, that would be just short of 5 million dollars. To see how deceptive this little game was, we googled #4 to find just such a site. You could select up to $1000 of merchandise and pay a fee for handling and shipping that equaled a minimum of 25% of the merchandise selected. So if we picked all $1000, we would pay $250. That would be a net gain of $750, so there still had to be a catch.

The catch was simple. We looked at a guitar they had for sale. It looked to be worth about $75. The price was $385.00. So if we picked the guitar, we would have spent $385 of the $1000 “free money.” Our cost for the handling and shipping fee?

$75

What a scam. I am sure there are people who fell for this little game. It made me angry enough to post about it hopefully spare someone from getting caught up in this internet scheme.

I will never buy a car from that dealership. Anyone who would play games with potential customers won’t get my business. It tells me a lot their business.