On April 12th, 2013 AllFacebook (The Unofficial Facebook Blog) posted an article written by Mario Zelaya, CEO of Majestic Media: The Dangers of Facebook Sweepstakes and Contests. I shared the link on my Contest Queen Facebook Fan Page, and what a commotion it caused.
Everyone was afraid that their program would catch up with the honest entrant along with the cheaters, similar to dolphins getting caught in a fisherman’s tuna net. I contacted Mario, and he granted me an interview.
Rest assured, Mario stated he has no problems with honest entrants. Sadly, not every entrant is honest. His company created the program to eliminate the increasing number of cheaters in online promotions. I asked him, “Will entrants following the rules be inadvertently disqualified, caught in the net, so to speak.” He replied, “No. Honest entrants will not be disqualified.”
He makes two statements in his article, one I agree with and one I don’t:
Professional cheaters increase their chances of winning, either through voting for themselves under aliases, creating scripts, or entering sweepstakes with numerous fake profiles containing accurate contact information.
This statement is true. I have even been called by contest marketing agencies asking about a specific contestor to see if I knew them as they have been caught cheating as their cheating was so blatant and/or outrageous.
What generally happens with these types of contests is that a network of cheaters — or “contest junkies,” as we call them — subscribes to blogs that provide updates on new promotions. When they get these updates, they all flock to the contest, generating a high volume of fake entries. As the contest goes on, that percentage of cheaters lowers dramatically as legitimate entries come in.
This is the statement I disagree with, as most honest contestors use sweepstakes aggregates to find giveaways to enter. It’s how I find the contests I enter. I sure don’t cheat. It’s also the paragraph that caused all the commotion because how does Majestic Media know that the rush entries at the beginning are all cheaters? I directly asked Mario how their program distinguished cheaters from honest entrants. He refused to answer, stating it was propriety information but again assured me if you weren’t cheating, you wouldn’t be disqualified.
My only answer to the above statement is: if it is a single-entry-only sweepstakes, enter in the middle of the entry period, and if it’s a daily or weekly contest, begin entering as soon as possible to maximize your odds, follow the rules EXACTLY so you are not caught in the net.
No matter what new developments occur in the contest management industry, always:
- follow my #1 tip: ALWAYS READ & FOLLOW THE RULES!,
- believe you are going to win,
- enter, enter, enter
and you will be fine.
“What generally happens with these types of contests is that a network of cheaters — or “contest junkies,” as we call them — subscribes to blogs that provide updates on new promotions. When they get these updates, they all flock to the contest, generating a high volume of fake entries. As the contest goes on, that percentage of cheaters lowers dramatically as legitimate entries come in.”
This part has me particularly concerned. I know most of us use forums or contest sites to get the updates on new contests, therefore as soon as they are posted, we all enter usually the day or day after the contest was posted on one of these sites. It doesn’t seem fair that people who are paying attention to the start dates of contests, and start entering immediately should be DQ’d. Something sounds fishy about this statement and it’s bothering me. I sure hope that isn’t the case.
I should add, I am totally fine with them catching the cheaters. It’s only fair to the rest of us who play by the rules, but as you stated, I am concerned they are going to catch some legitimate entries in this giant so called fishing net.