🚀 go-pugleaf

Ernie Osborne wrote:
> 
> Scam.  This is pathetic.

And comfy wrote:

>SCAM!!!!
>
>He wants you to send him $100.

and Ronald McCurdy wrote: 

>You forgot to mention the $100 entry fee. Is that why they call you 
>Skip?  It's a great sweepstakes if money is no object....

Sorry, folks, but you're all wrong. I can't vouch for this particular
promotion, but the fact that it requires an entry fee doesn't make it a
"scam." It is =not= a sweepstakes -- it's a contest, with entries to be
judged on their content. And entry fees for contests are not illegal.

I agree that Mr. Montanaro should have mentioned the $100 entry fee --
it's not exactly an insignificant consideration. But please don't get
caught up in the mistaken notion that anything requiring an entry fee or
a proof of purchase is a "scam" because it's not.

By the way, these "Win a House" or "Win a Bed & Breakfast" or "Win a
Country Inn" promotions are a perfectly legal way to "sell" property.
The owner gets at least a good portion of his/her investment back and
the winner gets one heck of a value for his/her $100 investment. And
this type of promotion is usually as closely regulated by law as are the
sweepstakes you enter.

By the way, several years back, when we were publishing a separate
newsletter for skill contests, one of our subscribers won a home in
California in exactly this type of contest. It had an appraised value of
more than half a million dollars, and all it cost him was $100 and
several days of writing and rewriting his essay.

--
Nadine
ladyluck@pobox.com		http://www.pobox.com/~sweeps.update
sweeps@concentric.net		http://www.concentric.net/~sweeps