Last week a friend called me very excited. She said she had received a letter in the mail that she had won a $1000 shopping spree from a local car dealership. She had already driven 30 miles to the dealership to pick up her certificate. All she had to do was pay shipping and handling on the items. Being the skeptic that I am, I asked her if she had entered any contests for that specific prize. She didn't remember entering anything like that. She read the letter to me, it specifically said to enter http://www.selectyourgifts.com/ into your browser. I know why now, so you will not search for it and see the unsavory results.
I asked her not to order anything until I could do a little research. I went straight to my favorite site for rooting out scammers, http://www.ripoffreport.com/ and searched selectyourgifts.com. I found several ripoff reports. What this company does is market itself to car dealerships, vaccuum cleaner salespeople etc. Everyone wins this so called shopping spree but you have to come in and pick up the certificate or set up a vaccuum or (insert other ridiculously overpriced item or service) sales pitch in your home.
After you get your certificate you go to the site and find yourself stunned to see your "free" dollar store merchandise there with $4-5 shipping and handling charges and a very inflated retail value. In order to spend $1000 on this site you would likely pay $300-500 in shipping charges, which would equal the real (or even more than) value of the items.
Don't waste your time on this. If you receive notice that you have won a $500 or $1000 shopping spree, call the sponsor and ask them what store it is for. If it pertains to http://www.selectyourgifts.com/, spare yourself the gas money and/or time it will take to obtain the certificate. If you want to see what kind of junk these so called prizes are, go to the website and type in "sample" for the cert. # and "sample" for the passcode. I feel that this qualifies as a scam but that is only my opinion, check it out and form your own!
Lesson for today: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
If you would like to repost this scam alert feel free, the more people who know about it the better. All I ask is that you include a link to my blog: http://simpleinspirationforeverydaylife.blogspot.com.
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26 comments:
That stinks for your friend! I would hate to be so excited & then find out it was a scam. Thanks for sharing!
It did Stink! Especially after driving 30 minutes to pick it up. Another lesson learned! Thanks for the comment Alexandra.
We just got one when we purchased a used car. The car is great but the dealer did himself a disservice pushing this garbage. Like you I was suspicious when the specifically asked you not to search for them. So of course I di, and found your blog and many other places full of complaints. I used your "sample" method and checked it out, they had DVD's that you can buy at Big Lots for $3 for "only" $4.95 + $5.00. Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for this. We need more blogs posting about this. I made a post just now and linked to this post.
They sent me the same thing, and I was immediately skeptical. Did a google search (disregarding their instructions haha) and your post came up. Thanks
I just got off the phone with these clowns. It wasn't tied into any car dealership or vacuum promotion. They called me out of the blue and said I'd have to pay $3.58 a week for 60 months to get 6 magazines to qualify for the $1000 shopping spree. I admit to being a fool and fantasizing about a $1000 shopping spree to a place like Amazon or something. I think it was more the fact that I didn't want to deal with 6 subscriptions to magazines I don't have time to read.
someone's selling a $1000 shopping spree as a 'gift certificate' on ebay. i'm glad i've read up on them so i'm not tempted to try to get something for nothing.
i definitely just got a call today about winning a $1,000 shopping spree i'm glad i looked this up first
uhmmm i gave them my credit card info and then when they asked if they can charge me i said NO. I changed my mind they are really slick talking. Is it illigal that they charged me anyway... how can i change them from taking my money?
Hello I live in Georgia and received this flyer in the mail from Toyota South dealership in Marrow Georgia. My youngest was so excited I knew that they just wanted to lure you into the dealership and talk you into buying a car. The flyer tells you to scratch and if your number matches you can win a car or three other prizes. Of course we got the card with a 500 hundred dollar shopping spree. I never type in my tool bar I always do a Google search so that I can see what else comes up. www.selectyourgifts.comscam came up. I knew it was a scam. Believe it or not it was dozen of people there with that scam flyer. They should not subject people to that. So many people are desperate. I think I am going to send this to my local TV station and Clark Howard so that they can put them on blast. Oh they tried to take my flyer away. We need more website like yours. Thanks
OMG!!! I just got off the phone with someone who said I won a $1000 dollar shopping spree online. I was very excited, until he said I have to pay $3.58 a week for magazines. He said that I would get a 60 month subscription for only $3.58 a week. I quickly told him I AM NOT INTRESTED!!! Thanks your blog really helped me, because I thought I passed on something good. When it reaaly was a scam.
I just got off the phone with them. Some guy called Daniel told me about the $3.58/week magazine deal and then confirmed my address from somewhere. I don't understand how they manage to get people's information.
Anyway, then he transferred me to his supervisor Anita and she again confirmed my address. Then she started asking me about my Credit Card data. I told her that I did not want to enroll in this offer since I was not interested in her magazines to which she said that they have 250 different magazines to choose from and asked me about my hobbies. I told her that I don't want it since I'd be moving elsewhere to which she transferred me to some other line which no one answered.
When I looked up online about these people, I came across all these scam stories.These people are truly irritating. I hope they haven't got my card details from somewhere.
Mine was exactly the same story as Venna only it was a $500 spree. The company they claimed was Viking Magazine. I guessed from the beginning that it was scam but wanted to follow up thru on them. confirmed my address too. They get peoles info from things you fill online. I just filled a form (also claiming to lead me to free stuff if I take the survey) There, I put my name (in a different way than normal) and I've recieved about 5 - 6 phone calls from diff people. One thing, they all called me the name I put there. And now this one.
I even regret giving them my Bank Name and telling them the kind of card I have with them although I hope that is not so harmful.
When it was time to give my card info, I told them politely (although I wish I had been more stern) that I cant release my card info to a human being (I'm not using a safe website)
If useful, the number they called me with now, is 952-852-6698.
I almost thought I had missed an opportunity then I searched www.selectyourgifts.com and saw this.
Good to know.Somebody called me that i have being selected for $500 shopping spree,all i have to pay $17.95 every month for magzines or register/sign up to be receiving every week magzine, which include $4.00 shipping. Help i need an advice.
I just recieved a call from these people no clue how that got my number. But when she started asking about my bank account and if I had a job I told her no. After that she was real quik to say oh well unfortunately you have to have a job and a bank account to qualify.
I just got off the phone with my sister who does not have internet access and she wanted me to help her find out how to collect her "$500.00 shopping spree." She gave me the address selectyourgifts.com and right below it was your selectyourgifts.scam. I went there first. Thank You So Much. I was able to read her some of the comments and assure her she was unfortunatly not a winner. She was quite disapointed. Thanks again for sharring all the comments.
I received this offer through a phone call. The man said, I recieved this offer through a quiz I took, which is true, I did take a quiz. Though I am skeptical of this offer. I'm only 14 and they said this offer is for people 17 and older, which that information is not on the website that I took the quiz, because on the website that I took the quiz the minimal age was 13.
Thank you for sharing this. I'll most likely ask more questions when they call back.
The website does look scammer-like too.
Thank goodness I googled this and thank you for your help!
I received a call from a number (360)967-4286 and a man from the name of mr. jones said i won a $1000 gift certificate. He said to go to www.selectyourgifts.com and he would give me a confirmation code after i pay the one time processing fee...i told him i was skeptic and i started searching online about the reviews and all were bad...i told him to no call me anymore and remove my number...i looked into the website and used sample on the password and sure enough...the man was lying...everyone beware with these calls...DO NOT FALL FOR THEM!!!
Thanks for stepping out. I am a victim of the scam and am in the process of trying to get out of the magazine "deal". Good luck to all. I just do not understand how a company that has had thousands of complaints since at least 2003 is still allowed to pursue and victimize innocent consumers.
AWESOME. This post saved my life, I just received that very call, "1000 spree at selectyourgifts.com" I knew it sounded too good to be true and I found your post to confirm that! More like www.selectyourscams.com :] thanks for helping out!!!
5/27/2011 and these jokers are still at it. I received my call today from Jay and spoke a good while with his supervisor Josh. I might of upsetted Josh because all of his antics wasnt working on me. I kept bombarding him with questions and what if scenerios and he tried to reassure me that my credit card # would be safe I'm glad I didnt fall for the scam. People please dont fall victim as they get rich off the ones who did. Wake up inform everybody.
Lol same thing just happened to me with Megan lol I gave them expired visa gift card #'s and they fell for it I am not an idiot they should know better!!! I am a stay at Home mom and yet I still qualified for this free shopping spree as long as I agree to pay 14.00 a month for 60 months for magazines (5) to be exact lol they are losers
I just gotten a phone call from them, they actually got a nerv to ask for my cc#, uhhhh how can those people who work on that company sleep at night.
I received two phone calls from these people: 423-317-8561, 432-318-9912 just now. "You've just won a $1000 shopping spree for being a valued customer!" I was so close to dishing out $48/month for the stupid magazine subscriptions in order to "get 1000 dollars." They did tell me there would be shipping charges.. "The store has clothes, electronics, there's a huge selection." Thank you for saving me from a huge headache!
soo not a victoria secret voucher -.- leeerrr!!! thanks for tryin scammers
Ebates Scam
Hi All, be warned: I've been phoned at work by a company who claim to be contacting me regarding a Pay-Day loan I requested online (would I do such a thing?
I made the mistake of falling for her scam and I dont want anyone else to be affected by it.
Ebates Scam
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