Last week I blogged about programmer Christian Méthot and how he blatantly cheats in contests, along with a follow-up article that questioned what could be done and the legality of it all.
The backlash was even bigger than I thought it would be, and I thought I was going to be huge.
NOTE: I used Google to translate this article. I did a bit of editing so the sentences flowed, somewhat, properly.
Participants angry
Contest cheating investigation in the Journal has implications across the country
Furious to learn that a programmer and his accomplices manipulated entries to win, contests fans have started a movement to encourage organizers to tighten their rules and be tougher on cheaters.
A survey by the Journal revealed on Saturday that a crack computer programmer Repentigny had set up an ingenious system that flooded contests with an infinite amount of bogus emails.
The carousel has allowed the Christian Méthot group to win dozens of prizes including a car, a snowmobile, and several trips. The Journal has traced it to more than $200,000 in winnings.
“I hope your stories will encourage companies to protect themselves against competition from fraudsters. Otherwise, it profits me nothing to invest half an hour of my time each day to fill the ballots, “says René Vincent.
Oasis replied that they will investigate the matter: “Changes will be made to our next contests in order to minimize the possibility that such a situation happening again.“
The Contest Queen Angry
Carolyn Wilman, the Canadian author, and marketing expert, expected such a move for some time. She has also translated and published the Journal stories to her blog to share it with its readers in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
“An example of banding together is, a reader of my blog has already contacted 50 companies in the country; three have already told her they would address this problem”, she enthuses.”
More Demanding
Ms. Wilman, who advises as participants in the competitions that companies organize, believes that sponsors need to be more discerning when it comes to design rules and registration forms.
“I know dozens of Canadians in the rest of the country that has been disgusted. They decided to stop participating. This is not good advertising for companies that,” for his part stressed Mark Villanueva. This contest forum moderator Red Flag Deals spends five hours a day and finds the contest to fill a hundred entry forms.
Villanueva believes he wins between $15,000 and $50,000 per year in prize contests: “Like what it is possible to win by playing within the rules. But you have to put in the time.”
Couche-Tard will review its methods of registration
The victim as more companies Christian Méthot network, Alimentation Couche-Tard was quick to react and intends to quickly review its competition entry methods.
With its automated system, the programmer has literally monopolized the draw organized by a snowmobile chain and Rockstar in January. A contest registry analysis shows that Méthot and his accomplices have completed over 90% of registration forms, despite regulations limiting participation.
No wonder then that it is one of the clan members, Annie St-Amant, who has won.
“We obviously were not aware of this scheme and we are sorry to hear that several of our competitions were won by a group who found the way to beat the system,” said Melissa Lessard, spokesperson for Alimentation Couche-Tard in Quebec.
Equal opportunity for all
“In light of what we have learned, we will quickly revise the registration methods so that this situation does not happen again. It is important for us that each participant in our competitions has an equal chance to win the prizes,” she added.
Snowmobiling won by Annie St-Amant was for sale on the Kijiji site Méthot Christian and his father last week.
Moreover, new information obtained from the public has identified two other clan members. Stéphane Ferland and Patrick Dubé thus add to the list of 10 people unveiled last weekend. With a total of $ 45,000 in prizes, they carry the group gains estimated at over $200,000.
Ex–brother-in-law
Mr. Ferland has won nearly $19,000 in prizes including a trip for two business classes in Qatar, a one-year subscription to a gym, and a hostel getaway. In the latter case, six other members of the group had also won the same prize in the same competition.
As for Mr. Dubé, the former brother-in-law of Christian Méthot, he won approximately $26,000 in prizes. In the lot, there is a set of appliances, a $10,000 gift certificate for trips to spas, a VIP weekend in New York, and a trip for four to Cuba.
It was not possible to get in contact with these two.
Read the article to see all the pictures and additional details I couldn’t easily blog about (that don’t need translating).
There always seems to be something lost in translation.
I spoke to Stéphane for over a half hour and got three ‘sound bites’. (I blogged about all the points I gave the interviewer in my post: How To Prevent Cheating in Sweepstakes.) What I stressed was companies need to take responsibility for promotion from beginning to end. Most sponsors and agencies rely too heavily on contest apps, like Woobox, that are incredibly easy to manipulate. Coupled with the fact they don’t test, monitor or vet the contest or entries, you have a recipe for disaster. Yes, Christian and his friends cheated, but if marketers were doing their due diligence the cheating wouldn’t be as rampant. (Sadly, nothing is 100% fail-safe. People -including Google!- have been hacking CAPTCHAs for years.)
Not an isolated issue.
This issue isn’t limited to Canada. Where there is smoke there is fire and Di Coke (aka Super Lucky Di, my UK counterpart) also blogged about this issue: Cheating in Sweepstakes & Competitions. Ensure you send this information to anyone you know in the United States, the UK, or any other country, for that matter. (I remember seeing contests in every country I visited on a trip win way back in 2004.)
Getting the word out.
This problem will not go away on its own. I have said for years the sponsors and the entrants must combine forces to stop cheating. To get the word out I contacted several marketing industries and social media publications. (I write about the marketing side of sweepstakes on my Idea Majesty blog.)
I have heard from many contestors telling me they are alerting contest sponsors, including Shirley who told me has already she contacted 50 sponsors so far. Are you doing your part?
Have you reported this problem to contest sponsors?
LOL, Yes I spoke to Stephan for almost an hour about the ripple of effects of cheating in the community. How contestors get disallusioned when they play by the rules and things like this come out. How companies need to be held accountable for their part in not following their own rules. How Mr Methot has tarnished honest contestors/sweepstakers in the eyes of sponsors and companies in a hobby that is considered in some companies eyes as distasteful. Yet the sound bite I got was “Mark Villanueva understand better now why he wins less often.”
That’s a tough read. Seriously. Everyone loses except the cheater – the sponsor, the sweepers, consumers in general….I would say even the public suffers from this type of deception. To enable these types of people only encourages them to do dubious or fraudulent things in other aspects of life. I hope this stuff is stopped and, in a perfect world, someone cheating to this extent would be brought up on fraud charges.
But what about the hundreds of thousands of dollars already scammed from these companies, can nothing be done, civil or criminal charges, or do they just say “oh well” we will be careful next time, and then just carry on as usual. Can they not sue to recover the prizes, or value? Maybe something should be in the rules about recourse in the event of a winner caught cheating they will be subject to civil and criminal remedies. Shoplift a tube of toothpaste you go to jail, scam a snowmobile or a trip you get a shoulder shrug. Too late for the thousands of disillusioned contesters like myself who have all but given up on the hobby due to cheaters when voting contests were all the rage.
The only reason this fellow got caught was he got greedy. If his wins were more modest and infrequent, he could have carried on for many more years, as it looks like some of his wins go back a few years.
Now that he has been caught should we be informing all companies that include Quebec in contests of this guy? Also, has he won contests that exclude Quebec, which should be illegal since he lives in Quebec.
Many contestors have been sending these articles to sponsor’s and agencies as you suggest. As far as I know, they only cheated in contests open to Quebec.