Dream Car Lottery Scams

So, if we don't enter competitions, we wont win prizes and the main reason why the bulk of us don't win anything is because we don't get involved with competitions.

Saturday night TV brings a line-up of game shows and some lucky people who ring in, will win a car, holiday or other fantastic prizes. They won the car because they made the effort to enter the competition.

Some of these car competitions are in the business of sourcing cars for prizes and they want you or someone like you to win a car. Let's get real, there are goodies and baddies in every business and we're going to assume that they are all honest until we know different.

Compare a car dealer with a car lottery company. You go to a showroom and choose your new car, the style, colour, finish and interior etc. You pay your money or arrange the finance and drive your car away.

Now take the 'Dream Car Lottery', It's not likely to be the car you would choose from your average high street car dealership, we're looking at maybe an Aston Martin DB9, Bentley, Ferrari, real dream cars for you to win.

The cost of the dream car lottery ticket could be less than the price of a tank of petrol and the car lottery company may restrict the number of tickets. By fixing the quantity of dream car lottery tickets, it gives you a better chance of winning the car and ensures a profit for the Dream car lottery company.

It is a fair question to ask if the dream car is purchased by the dream car competition organisers before the close of the lottery or do they sell the tickets first, collect all the money and then buy the car.

If you see the car on a dream car competition stand, ask if that is the actual car, at least you can see if it is an import. Look at whether it is left hand drive or not, talk to the dream car competition organizers like you would a car dealer, it is your hard earned money.

The dream car competitions generally close on a specified date or when the stated number of tickets sells out.

Ask how the competitions are judged. Who pulls out the winning tickets, is it a random member of the public, a local solicitor, a director of the dream car competition company, a celebrity - it is a valid and important question.

Some win a dream car competitions are not lottery systems or require just the purchase of a ticket. Others may be websites, based on 'spot the ball' for example and require your skill and judgement.

At this point, it is worth mentioning dream car lottery scams. If you receive a text, telephone call, email, or letter informing you that you are the winner of a luxury dream car, ask yourself, did you buy a ticket? You probably didn't and the chances are it is a scam.

Having said that, even the genuine dream car competitions may ask for your phone number or email address, and you will be very sick if you treat the winning notification as a scam. It is worth asking the dream car competition organisers about the winning notification process. It is unlikely that you will have to call a premium rate telephone number and certainly not be asked for any further money or your bank details.

Let's assume that there are two typical types of 'dream car competitions'. Virtual and Physical.

Virtual is internet or mail-shot based, where you get to see a picture of the dream car that you might win.

Physical is where you might be waiting for a flight at an airport and there, in its shining glory, is a beautiful stunning dream car with equally beautiful girls ready and waiting to sell you a dream car competition ticket.

I'm pretty sure that Airport Authority, wouldn't want their passengers and visitors being ripped off or involved in a dream car competition scam and I'm equally sure that there will be some sort of safe-guard in place. When in doubt, check it out!