I received an advertisement from a local car dealership...

[Buckeye_Democrat]

... which involved a "Moneyopoly" (how it was spelled) game to win cash prizes, with imagery from the Monopoly game.

I usually toss them in the trash immediately, but decided to reveal my results which was simple enough. I just had to pull up some tabs covering various Monopoly-like symbols.

Surprise, surprise... it revealed that I won $5,000 cash!


With two asterisks next to my supposed winnings, of course. What's so odd about the asterisks, however, is that I couldn't find them elsewhere... such as within the "fine print" which has such terrible contrast between the text and background that it's a major struggle to read it in the first place.

Then it provides a phone number to "verify" my prize. I never bothered to call it. For starters, the mailer has language which states unequivocally that I'm a prize winner, but now it mentions an extra step to verify it? Uh huh.

But it doesn't stop there. It further mentions that the prize requires visiting the dealership during "event times" after verifying it by phone.

I decided to look up similar scams online at that point, and this was the closest that I found (with a news video embedded within it):
https://www.wral.com/match-to-win-ag-warns-against-money-carlo-car-dealership-scam/17475111/

Then I looked up Google reviews for the local car dealership, and lo and behold, the most recent review was from some lady who took the bait and showed up there. She claimed that the phone call stated she indeed won $5,000. Yet upon showing up at the dealership, she was told she'd only receive the money if a code on the advertisement matched the one they had displayed there. And her code didn't match because... of course.

I'm a very skeptical person who wasn't fooled by it, but I have to admit it's the most deceptive example of that nonsense that I've yet encountered. It really shouldn't be allowed, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for a Republican Attorney General in Ohio to ever do anything about it.

[NJCher]

1. fool me once...

...gotta' get fooled again.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. The asterisks are so bizarre to me.

I never called the phone number, so I don't know if they they really "confirm" the cash prize unequivocally, as the woman in the Google review claimed.

But the asterisks didn't seem to exist elsewhere either. It would be like a Wikipedia page with various reference numbers next to statements, but the numbered sources don't exist. Same for a scientific paper, family tree, or anything else with similar notation.

Then some Republican politician/lawyer/judge might come along later to proclaim that "any reasonable person" would know the asterisk means it's a lie, or whatever.

It should've at least had a couple asterisks at the bottom of the flyer, next to a "Get out of jail free" card or something. Then I might figure out they were referencing the deceptive crooks who created it.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

3. Just a ploy to get you on the premises to apply a high-pressure sales pitch.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Oh, I know.

It seems much more dishonest than the flyers I've previously seen, though.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

5. I've received mail with a key attached to the mailpiece

along with a prize number on it encouraging me to come to the dealership and see if the key will start a new car (the "Grand Prize&quot .

And the "Grand Prize: for the number will be something like, say, $5,000. It is standard mail (not first class) which means they are doing big bulk mailings of these mailpieces. Just an attempt to get folks to pay the dealer a visit where of course they will start working them with a sales pitch. I just trash them but I always make a point to check any junk mail (like life insurance offers) to ensure there is no form to fill out which i then would put in the shredder.