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Dealing with Sweepstakes Offers

One of the biggest sources of complaints to the Attorney General's Office involves sweepstakes offers that don't seem to live up to their promises. Sweepstakes offer supposedly valuable prizes or discounts, usually as an enticement to buy a product or listen to sales pitches for other goods or services.


In fact, your chances of winning are usually very small. You should watch out for sweepstakes that require you to pay money up front in the hope of winning larger rewards later on. An alarming number of seniors have lost their entire savings by repeatedly entering sweepstakes in the hopes of improving their slim chances of winning valuable prizes.
A new sweepstakes come-on invites customers to dial a 900 number to enter. Remember that 900 calls can cost many times more than a regular toll call. Advertisements for 900 numbers are required to disclose the price of the call. Read the fine print.


Source: Office of New York State Attorney General

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