Something nasty in the Radio Times

Something deeply unpleasant fell out of my special Christmas issue of the Radio Times the other day – a blue paper 'wallet' containing a ticket that told me one of a list of prizes, including £1 million cash, was mine to claim.
And what did I have to do to discover whether I would be instantly rich, or off on the Orient Express to Venice, or relaxing on a Mediterranean cruise? Just call the number on the ticket.
And there of course is the catch. I look at the small print and find the call will cost at least £9, even if I choose to send a text instead of listening to a recorded message ramble on for six minutes.
The company behind this bogus freebie is Purely Creative Ltd, based in Lancaster. In April, it was fined £2,000 by Icstis, the premium rate phone services regulator, for a similar 'Golden Snowflake' Christmas promotion that included an invitation to become a millionaire.
Promotions like this may be legal now, but they may not be when a new EU anti-scam directive becomes law at the end of 2007. The Government is consulting on a range of new consumer protection measures it proposes to include in the legislation.
In the meantime beware of offers designed to sucker the sort of people who through naivete or stupidity, will not ask themselves why they should expect to get something for nothing.
Do you really believe you should pocket a million pounds just because you bought the Radio Times?
Part of the problem of course is that the wallet appeared in a magazine people trust,
I asked the people at RT what they were doing promoting a rip-off. They replied: 'In common with other newspapers and magazines, Radio Times includes competitions from third parties which may carry premium rate phone charges. Our advertising conditions are among the strictest in the market, and we ensure our advertisers comply with all regulatory bodies, including CAP, the ASA, Icstis and Trading Standards.'
Pull the other one, it's got Christmas bells on it.

- Simon Moon, This is Money

Comments

[Alan Robertson]

I find an effective "remedy" to discourage these companies is to put the dishonest advertisement in the post addressed to them with no stamp.

If we all did that, not only would they be deluged with mail that they could not sort from genuine mail, but the cost to receive all this mail would soon outway any amounts that they con out of people.

[Joseph Powell]

Is it not time legislation was initiated to totally ban premium rate numbers and, perhaps more importantly, ban small print?
Vast numbers of people are being misled by offers such as the one you have described and, unfortunately many of these people will be of retirement age with reading vision difficulties.

[allan anderson]

I much appreciated Mr..Moon's Blog re Radio Times Xmas issue and premium rate cons.
Why however do we have to wait for the EU to put up the barrier when in all logic we
in this country are supposed to have grey
matter as well.

[Emily]

I just opened one of these and, suprise suprise, I won. I did some loose research on the net to see if these were infact a scam, but I only found stuff about how they were fined for 'misleading' the customer rather then not giving them anything.

Out of curiosity has anyone actually tried getting anything from them? I know the call costs are ridiculous but if it means I could get £500 boots vouchers.. may just be worth it.

Btw I realise that by putting that I sound very naive and stupid, but I'm desperate and it could be worth a try..

[alicia]

i think that to stop all these scams someone should ring the number and write down the winning codes! post the codes on the internet that way the compaines will stop making a profit and stop ripping us off!

[Jack Payne]

Two years ago I won three of these, yes, within one year. All three out of the U.K. Funny thing, though, I had to turn over all the keys to my identity on my way to the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

Needless to say, I rejected all this largesse.