Readers Digest Prize Draw is it a con?

A question about : Readers Digest Prize Draw is it a con?

Well I have recieved my letter this morning telling me that I am in with a chance of winning Ј250,000.

Is this a con?

Whats the catch?

How and why have I been invited?

Is it worth sending the numbers back?

Why dont they just send the numbers in the same envelope as the letter to notify me that i have been selected?

Best answers:

• Apparently someone's uncle won - see
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...03#post1253203. G
• Well, as you don't need to subscribe to anything to enter the prize draw it can't be all that bad. I sent ours back in the NO envelope, better to try than chuck it away and wonder and it doesn't cost anything.. shame i won't get that Jag though
• I don't believe it, and I don't know why that story would appear on the forum. I have done local press searches for the names the RD publishes as winners in my part of the country, and not one of them has featured on their local papers' websites or archives. Yet it is supposed to be about promoting RD. If you google their names and "winner" or "wins", you'll only get the RD website or something about sending out cheap "gifts". Same in America, no actual cash prize winners can be located. No press coverage, no local news, no TV. "Publicity for Rd"? Nope, it's a scam.
• I sent back these "lucky numbers " for years and years. Never won as much as a sausage.
• I live with an aged relative who has spent maybe thousands of pounds on books she neither wants nor needs. They still tell her she is a "finalist". It is outright deception, and conforms to all the styles and habitd of the worst scams, sending out "last notice" and "Immediate" mailings as soon as you reply to one of their letters, and encouraging you to think you REALLY need to order, while actually saying you don't. They are not even selling good value books! Try selling any on EBay!
• Yes they need investigating,take out an annual subscription and they bombard you with promises and one letter after another with no end,watch out because they renew your subscription without contacting you ,then you get a bill after a couple of copies.
• Hi, im not so sure if it is a scam, although the competitions they run are designed to make you think you're in with a better chance of winning if you buy from/subscribe to them. I always enter but never give RD a penny of my money. Apparantly a few years back Which did a report that said a supprisingly few number of people actually respond to the competitions that RD run so the odds of winning are quite high (this info was passed to me by my mother). There's no harm in entering.........you never know!
• Heloo...new person to Comps board here.....
  Had to say:
  My Mum won Ј1000 from Readers Digest about 5 years ago....
  Since then I always send back the replies but I don't buy anything else apart from the main subscription as I like some of the little articles in the monthly pamphlet thing (and I only bought the subscription on special offer!)
• Aye, and you can make some extra cash from RD by submitting silly wee anecdotes and jokes. ;-)
• My mum recieved a readers digest letter through the post today claiming she could win Ј250,000, so I decided to check it out. I searched on google maps the address given on the back of the letter for registered office this is what I found:
  https://
  www.
  zshare.net
  /image/
  620426067f8f2351/
  I looked up the postcode in google maps given to write to and it came up with no business listed just a building.
  https://
  www.
  zshare.
  net/image/
  620443178b84513d/
  As mentioned above it is suspicous that the only place the winners are mentioned is on the readers digest website, no mention at all anywhere else. You would have thought that some-one winning so much money would have made it into the local papers at least!
• My mum/dad get letters WEEKLY at the moment it seems.
  Its actually starting to annoy the hell out of everyone lol.
• I got one of these. I sent off the yes envelope but i don't want to keep the book, think i was blinkered by the cash/car prizes momentarily lol. Does anyone know just how easy is it to send it back? I sort of doubt it is as easy as they say it is...
• I'm slightly confused because the way the letter reads, it gives the impression that you MUST subscribe to the RD before you can enter the competition. How have you all managed to enter the competition and not part with a penny? I also thought that replying in the NO envelope meant you didn't want to enter the comp.
• Many years ago, my mum took on a job from home which involved collecting crates and crates of replies from readers digest prize draws. Her job was to sort them into yes and nos, sift out any letters, cheques that kind of thing. As far as I know they were all put in the draw but there were thousands and thousands of these things!
• I always send them back - in the NO envelope :lol:
• i always send them back in the no envelope, but my fella got a letter asking to phone the free phone number, and register the ref number, (i did it i got called mrs kilgallon!!!! lol! we aint married,) which i thought was a little diffrent then sending it off!
  if its a con, there is no harm done !! as its only the price of a stamp(royal mail freebies) on the no envelopes anyway!!!
• I bought the odd book from them years ago, never subscribed to the mag though, but always sent the NO envelopes back
  eventually I won Ј100, not a huge win but all the same
  tbh I couldn't believe it myself & it wasn't till the cheque had cleared & the money was in the bank that I was convinced it was real
  so yes it's a marketing ploy, but it doesn't cost anything to send the envelopes back & be in with a chance, even a small win's better than none