CELRIG [part of IVGP]

[sceptic]

When will they learn that my mother is deceased and that sending anything here is a waste of time...

Checking through the s[pc]ams that arrived when I was away last week I've come across this one from the CEntre Loissey Recherche International de Gagnants

MY mother appears to have a cheque for £10,100 awaiting her response in which she needs to put a £21 cheque payable for processes and ``for the method of delivery I have selected for "How to Become Rich"''

All the documentation appears to say she has a guaranteed cheque for £10,100 awaiting her, but on closer inspection of the terms and conditions, on the back of the letter telling her what they'll do, it appears to be somewhat different; here's the important parts:

1 - CELRIG, trademark of IVGP, has organised this promotional campaign, without obligation to purchase, entitles "10,100.00 pounds to pay you", for which the closure date is fixed at 31/12/2005 and which can be presented under diverse forms and names with one principal winner and runners-up.
3 - Game prizes to be awarded: A) One main prize, a bank cheque in the amount of 10,100.00 (Ten thousand one hundred pounds) or a valuable piece of jewellry, B) as many runner-up awards as participants, being a discount voucher for £51 (fifty-one pounds) which value is exclusively to be used towards the purchase of product or service proposed by all divisions of group IVGP or society linked with IVGP, and that before 31/12/2005
5 - To claim their prizes, winners must complete and return the document entitled "Notice of guaranteed payment," serving as a participation voucher, before 31/12/2005.
11 - The operation "10,000.00 pounds to pay you" is an organised publicity campaign with the objective to attract consumers to our offers. The organising society reserves the right, in case of events beyond their control, to modify or cancel the present operation without compensation to the participants...The complete terms and conditions of this game may be obtained by written demand to CELRIG, member of the group IVGP, SA

(emphasis and underlining mine.) There you have it: it always pay to read the small print/terms and conditions.

As a further note, this came under customer number 000030872 as used by "Olivia Roy", "Carmen", "Jean Sylvant / CIVPIV", "Esther Laine", "Emilie Paul", "Christie Owen", "Amanda Kane" (and possibly more).

It arrived under permit HQ 13224, as used by "Chrisie Owen", "Amanda Kane", "CIRAJH"

With a mailto address of PoX 59157, 1040 KD Amsterdam - as used by "Christie Owen"


Can anyone shed light on the IVGP and what they encompass (ie their trading names)?

[sceptic]

The letter was dated 07/10/2004. I've just re-read the terms and conditions and three things have just jumped right out:

1 - closure date is fixed at 31/12/2005
3 - discount voucher...to be used...before 31/12/2005
5 - to claim their prizes winners must complete and return...before 31/12/2005

Or to put it another way, the closing date for entries appears to be 31/12/2005, but the runner-up prize vouchers must be used by that date!

Term and condition No 10 says that the winner of the A) prize can be get by writing to them within 60 days of the closure on 31/12/2005.

I'm not too sure of the tenses used in term and condition 4, but:

4 - The pre-drawings are conducted under the control of the prize award commission from a list of document recipients before the documents are dispatched. The Winner of the main prize of 10,100.00 pounds is the person whose unique identification number will be drawn and will be declared the winner 15 days after the official end of the game

Does this say that (1) the (A) winner has been pre-drawn, but will not be declared as the winner until 15/01/2006, or, more importantly, that (2) the (A) prize winner will be drawn on 15/01/2006 and declared on the same day? If (2) how will the runner-up vouchers be able to be used as they expire on 31/12/2005, 15 days earlier? Obviously a non-native English speaker wrote this.

[Kevin Harrington]

PO Box 59157 seems to be next to 59158 as used by another scam on the website. It is probably one of many mail boxes at a post office. Since the Dutch postal service is now operated by a part of the international company TNT, you are unlikely to discover who is behind the scam. I think that it is fair to say that it is part of a bigger scam operation.

Short of posting a spy to watch who collects the envelopes, and then following them, we aren't going to find the culprits.

[sceptic]

The latest "you've won" promotion to get you to buy something has arrived, this time for O.R.G.G, at PoX 59157 1040 KD Amsterdam (Surprise surprise). Noticed in the terms and conditions that you don't have to buy anything, you are perfectly entitiles to just "enter" by filling in the form, but not ordering. But here comes the catch:

You can't use the supplied envelope you have to "Send the participation voucher...to O.R.G.G. in a Plain, unmarked enveloped directly to our special handling centre at the following address: O.R.G.G. - Entry without order department - PO Box 59157...Attention: do not use the reply envelope sent with this mail..."

And it nicely also puts in the T&Cs: "Non-compliance with these terms will result in ineligibility to claim the prize."

I wonder how many people actually read the T&Cs to find out what they can do (enter without making an order) and how to do it (in a plain envelope, not the supplied one) and so fall foul of at least on of these T&Cs?

PS also got one from Vitamail of Pox 1075, Bedford MK41 9XP with similar T&Cs, however, the note about using a plain envelpe is on the back of the reply envelope, so at least they give you some chance of spotting it.