MTN probed for ‘illegal lottery’

I didn't know that the Winikhaya Competition was run by Vodacom:confused: AFAIK, it was run by the South African Children's Charity Trust.

The Vodacom Competition that was closed for being in contravention of the National Lotteries Act was the Win-A-BMW one.
 
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I think they are right to shut them down. It is a massive money-making scam. The lottery by itself is bad enough... but these just go too far.
 
How is this competition working just btw?

I assume you get points for each question answered correctly? The one with the most points wins? Since you pay for each question, it means the one who spend the most [and answer correctly] wins.

So it might not be a draw, but the winner will inevitably not be skill-based but "who spend the most" based ....?

If MTN wanted to make this a bit more fair and truly skill based it should work as follow:

1. You pay to "enter" the competition [once]
2. While you answer correctly you will continue to receive questions , but you don't pay per question [at least not R7.50 ]
3. If you answer wrong, you need to "re-enter" [restarting the process]
4. The one who got the furthest wins.
 
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Man they almost got me with that one. Non stop sms after sms was sent to me with questions. Every answer cost me R7.50. Ok, I only answered one, but some ppl dont know when to stop. I'm glad theyre being investigated.
 
This "competition" was supposed to reward mtn customers and to celebrate mtn's 15th birthday BUT it is clearly a money making scheme that offers very little reward to mtn's customers! MTN have seriously lost the plot and are going to lose a lot more loyal customers if they continue on this downward spiral.
 
javs said:
This "competition" was supposed to reward mtn customers and to celebrate mtn's 15th birthday BUT it is clearly a money making scheme that offers very little reward to mtn's customers! MTN have seriously lost the plot and are going to lose a lot more loyal customers if they continue on this downward spiral.
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+1 They should have made it free. I have paid them enough money over the years. The least they could do is make the competition free...

What about awarding all subscribers with free SMS messages or something like that? Would have generated positive PR for them and said thank you to use for the thousands we have spent over the years.
 
javs said:
This "competition" was supposed to reward mtn customers and to celebrate mtn's 15th birthday BUT it is clearly a money making scheme that offers very little reward to mtn's customers! MTN have seriously lost the plot and are going to lose a lot more loyal customers if they continue on this downward spiral.
Click to expand...

They are celebrating their birthday with a big fat profit (and maybe big fat bonuses for top management):rolleyes:.
 
unfair competition

diabolus said:
How is this competition working just btw?

I assume you get points for each question answered correctly? The one with the most points wins? Since you pay for each question, it means the one who spend the most [and answer correctly] wins.

So it might not be a draw, but the winner will inevitably not be skill-based but "who spend the most" based ....?
Click to expand...

Yep, that is correct. Very disgusted with it actually. If someone is already spending thousands of rands on it, then I definately dont stand a chance.
 
AirWolf said:
I didn't know that the Winikhaya Competition was run by Vodacom:confused: AFAIK, it was run by the South African Children's Charity Trust.

The Vodacom Competition that was closed for being in contravention of the National Lotteries Act was the Win-A-BMW one.
Click to expand...

Winikhaya was in no way affiliated with any of the major networks. It was run by another company with proceeds going towards South African Childrens Charity Trust. Not defending or promoting WK, but their goal was to generate money for charities, unlike some of the other competitions.

I was involved with Winikhaya at WASP level.
 
This so called competition which is supposed to reward me, as a 12 year MTN user, is a serious turn off. I do not take kindly to an attempt to being scammed by one of my service providers. My service providers are in a trusted position when compared with those companies with whom I do not transact. This kind of action will entice me to promulgate them to that latter position ...
 
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at end of the month we will again see the whooos of 1k+ phone bills...as it were with vodacom.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Winikhaya was in no way affiliated with any of the major networks. It was run by another company with proceeds going towards South African Childrens Charity Trust. Not defending or promoting WK, but their goal was to generate money for charities, unlike some of the other competitions.

I was involved with Winikhaya at WASP level.
Click to expand...

The writer of the article didn't do enough research it seems:p.
 
Bloody disgrace this competition! We've paid for them to become this big in 15 years, and now they still milk us to celebrate their birthday? Bloody corporate greed, is what it is!

And they're stupid to boot! A friend's phone was blocked due to this competition, 'cause he had reached his credit limit (of which he wasn't aware at all!) and only after a fight did they "up the limit". But the questions keep on coming, enticing hm to continue sending answers... Two-faced greedy corporate bull*****...

Lastly, another reason I say they are stupid: the questions and answers are straight from answers.com... and then they still had some answers wrong! :rolleyes:
 
ettubrute said:
Bloody disgrace this competition! We've paid for them to become this big in 15 years, and now they still milk us to celebrate their birthday? Bloody corporate greed, is what it is!
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If they really wanted to celebrate 15 years, without making it a money-making event, they could've run the competition at regular SMS rates - they would still have made a lot of boodle, but the public would've been much happier.
 
The more I learn about and think about this diabolical money making scam, the angrier I get.

MTN say they are doing nothing illegal. But in my opinion, what they are doing is highly immoral.

Egging on subscribers to squander their money chasing out-of-reach pipe dreams is beyond sick.

I cannot believe a supposedly reputable company can sink this low.

Shame on you, MTN.
 
diabolus said:
If MTN wanted to make this a bit more fair and truly skill based it should work as follow:

1. You pay to "enter" the competition [once]
2. While you answer correctly you will continue to receive questions , but you don't pay per question [at least not R7.50 ]
3. If you answer wrong, you need to "re-enter" [restarting the process]
4. The one who got the furthest wins.
Click to expand...

If this is a celebration by MTN and a reward to their customers, why rip them off as they appear to be doing? If they are ripping each entry by R 7.50, I question how it cannot be construed as a lottery if it comes down to a lucky draw.

And what are they going to do with all the money? Charity, I hope!

With all the positive advertising they could have got, and perhaps even a host of new contract and pre-paid customers, this competition could have been less of a fiasco than it looks like it'll be. :confused::confused::confused:
 
They need to close the competition down - damn irritating spam messages they sent me.... after I've clearly stated more than once that I'm not interested in any of their crap.
 
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