Mare Street firm Prizeology launches campaign warning against fake lotteries and prize draw scams
Sarah Burns (centre) with her colleagues. Picture: Prizeology - Credit: Prizeology
A Mare Street business founder who made her name running prize draws for other firms has launched a campaign to stop people falling victim to scams.
Sarah Burns, who runs Prizeology, was spurred to take action after spotting self-evident cons being shared by people on her Facebook page.
“It annoyed me people could be so naive to think companies like Disney were giving away trips or Apple were giving away 1,000 iPads,” said Sarah. “They didn’t spell things correctly, they only had 60 followers and it clearly wasn’t Apple.
“I realised that people were spending thousands of pounds trying to claim prizes that didn’t exist, and I thought: ‘This is something we as an agency can really get behind – we are industry experts and can help educate consumers.’”
Among the most common scams are fake lotteries and prize draws, where criminals might trick people with official-looking documents or websites into paying a fake admin fee, paying bogus postal or insurance costs or making premium rate phone calls.
You may also want to watch:
Sarah, who has worked in the industry for 20 years, has come up with some top tips to help people differentiate legitimate prize promotions and the scams.
While the closing dates for real prize promotions are exact, scams will put you under pressure to reply.
Most Read
- 1 From Shoreditch to Las Vegas: New bingo hall for Hackney
- 2 Covid cases drop in Hackney for the first time since May
- 3 Pastor Morris tribute: 'We don’t know what would have happened to us if it wasn’t for him'
- 4 'Heads need to roll', says domestic violence campaigner after 'reckless' council data blunder
- 5 Tube strike suspended to allow for further talks
- 6 Crowdfunder for Prodigy's Keith Flint mural to raise mental health awareness
- 7 'It's like toilet', say Dalston residents who have had enough of broken locks, rats and scaffolding
- 8 All Points East: Radio 6 stage take-over plus more main stage acts
- 9 Massive drugs haul suspected to be worth over £1million seized in Hackney
- 10 Hackney this weekend: A Jerk festival, bingo with a twist and more
No genuine prize draw or competition will ever ask for a processing fee to release your “prize”, and you can’t “win” a lottery or prize draw if you did not enter it in the first place.
Sarah said: “People can kill themselves as a result of giving away their life savings because of the shame of it, and the scale of it is enormous.
“The information age we are in means these things are getting worse. There are multiple ways you can contact people and scam them, but if it sounds too good to be true it probably is – it’s a cliché for a reason.”
Sarah is planning a big campaign next year backed by National Trading Standards’ scams team, and hopes to get a big brand sponsor to help cover the cost.
