When competitions are added to Loquax either by a user or a promoter usually we do a few quick checks to decide whether the site should be included in our database. This isn’t always as perfect as we’d like as it’s easy to get trigger happy or miss the obvious, especially after a long day of looking at competitions. This means that just because we try and do the quality control that you shouldn’t forget to do your own. This is especially applicable to those of you who visit other portals and forums, see sites we don’t list and go and enter your details.
No Valid Competition Terms
For example, recently we have seen some competition submissions from sites called MyFamilyUK and Graduate Coach. Now these site are promoting competitions for some rather nice prizes. There’s a Mini Cooper car on offer on both sites along with trips to Australia and Laser Eye surgery. Now we know the sites are related as they’re both owned by Duceni Digital and the person trying to get them added to Loquax used the same IP address, albeit under different user registrations. On neither site are there any valid competition terms and conditions. There’s no indication who’s giving away the car, where your data will end up and whether the competition is in fact a data collection facility for a third party. By this we mean they’ve simply integrated a competition form to collect registrations for data marketing type sites.
Third Party Data Collection Sites
The question is can you trust a site that’s offering a brand new car as a prize that doesn’t have any terms and conditions relating to closing date, let alone where the prize is coming from? We can’t and therefore for that reason, plus our belief that they’re third party competitons, these sites won’t appear on Loquax. We know the old rules and terms are kind of boring, but they make sure things like we mentioned in our recent Twitter Competitions blog don’t occur and they offer you protection. Third party data collection competitions exist because the siteowners are being paid for leads. They are legit, but it should be clear to the entrant what’s going on!
Some Top Tips…
1. Look out for terms and conditions – if they don’t have them be wary!
2. Small sites with big prizes (e.g cars) should make you cautious.
3. Check contact details. A site you can’t contact might be worth avoiding.
4. Find out who owns the site – a trip to Nominet can help!
5. If you’re unsure about a site ask other compers before sending in your details.
Comping is a lot of fun, but it’s often all too easy to send off your details without considering who you’re sending them too. Our aim is to simply encourage you to be like us and be a little more wary.