Illegal lotteries under investigation

[rpm]

http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=1958

[craigsa]

About time they take action. These guys then use your number for SMS spam.

[bekdik]

I wonder if they will include Telkom's varing CAP limit as an illegal lottery?

[ajax]

I wonder if they will include Telkom's varing CAP limit as an illegal lottery?
lol@bekdik

Whenever I see the word "win" or "competition", I scan for the word "sms". As soon as I see "sms", I move on.

Lots of companies now use this method to generate revenue. Like they would give away an Ipod, but you have to send an sms entry for R2. It's nothing but profiteering. I refuse to be part of it.

[stoke]

Yup ... and millers genuine ripoff draft with their competition crap ... bring back the "event girls".
NOW !
I am so glad somebody picked up on this extortion !

[Chris]

One of the fundamental problems with entering a SMS compo is that people never know the winner of the comp! They probably don't even give out the prizes.

[kingmonty]

actually, it's become a major cash cow for Vodacom, MTN and CellC - way more so than for "companies". It is volume based as follows: for 500+ incoming sms's to a R1.00 short code, Vodacom takes R0.55 cents (excl VAT) for every SMS from it's Prepaid clients and R0.51 (excl VAT) from it's Contract clients. CellC takes R0.59 for every R1.00 SMS and MTN takes a whopping R0.83c per SMS for volumes up to 1000. The balance (e.g. Vodacom: R0.37 (VAT Incl)) is then split between the WASP (Wireless Application Services Provider) and the "company"... So, Companies don't really make much from this whole thing... The Cellular providers on the other hand are coining it - beeeeg time.

[craigsa]

One of the fundamental problems with entering a SMS compo is that people never know the winner of the comp! They probably don't even give out the prizes.
Exactly.