Online Sweepstakes - What You Need To Know

Sweepstakes are highly regulated in most countries. In the United States, many states have their own rules for sweepstakes, and a national sweepstakes must comply with each state's laws. In Canada and other countries, Sweepstakes must be at least nominally a game of skill, to avoid being seen as gambling. Canadian sweepstakes will usually require entrants to solve a mathematical puzzle to enter.

On-line contests are put up by many different types of organizations, from mom and pop businesses to multi-national corporations. Many of these sites are on dedicated servers that are professionally managed while others are on free-site systems where thousands of sites are on the same server.

Most sweepstakes can be entered by mailing a postcard with your name and address to the specified location. Some contests require you to hand print your postcard. This is designed to stop automated entries. Other sweepstakes do not care and you can easily enter through various automated means. Other contests allow entry vie their website, which can be even more convenient.

There are countless world wide contests that have all kinds of prizes which may be won at some point. The cash sweepstake is a money lottery that may take place in an audience show or a television contest. There are lots of shops, restaurants, fast foods and several department stores that use a cash sweepstake as an evolvement for business. If someone is dining in one of these specific restaurants or fast foods, that certain individual may be put on a list in order to be drawn lots. The Internet is full of different cash sweepstakes, so any individual can make money online by just simply entering the web sites that have the prizes promotions.

Every day, thousands of Americans receive sweepstakes offers, but not all of them are legitimate. How can you tell the difference between a real sweepstakes and a scam?

Legitimate sweepstakes are fun and free. They specify that no purchase is needed to win and buying a product will not increase your chances of winning—you never have to pay to collect a prize. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Postal Service's Office of Consumer Advocate are sponsoring this consumer-awareness campaign to point out the characteristics of fraudulent promotions and help limit the number of victims of these scams.

Remember, you do not have to pay to enter a sweepstakes or collect a prize. If you're asked to pay, the sweepstakes is a scam.

Postal Inspectors suggest you ask yourself these questions to prevent being scammed:

Does the promoter ask for your credit card number, checking account number, bank account information, or other personal account information? A legitimate prize company won't ask for this to declare you a winner.
Do they ask you to wire money or make a payment in an urgent manner? Do you feel pressure to make a payment within a given time deadline to collect your prize? Take a step back and evaluate the offer. Contact a Postal Inspector to verify that you're dealing with a legitimate sweepstakes offer.
Does the advertising copy clearly state that no purchase is necessary to win and a purchase will not increase your chances of winning? You never have to pay to play or to collect your prize when the sweepstakes is legitimate.

Some of the most popular places that offer sweepstakes contests on the online survey companies. What they do is instead of offering a cash incentive is offer you one entry into their daily sweepstakes. Usually you get one entry per survey that you take. Your chances of winning these types of surveys are very low however. The reason why is because there are dozens of people signed up with these survey companies. Your chances are better here than with some of the other online surveys. If you happen to be a fan of some of the morning or evening talk shows, you will see that on occasion they do offer sweepstakes. Most of these sweepstakes can be filled out online. The entry forms are on their websites. Keep in mind though that for a talk show sweepstakes, there are going to be a lot more people signing up, and your chances of winning will be slim.

The best and legitimate sweepstakes are the free ones. If they need you to pay a fee that probably means that they do not have the funds to reward the sweepstakes winner.