hamilton@uunet.uu.net (Danial Hamilton) (11/09/90)
About a month ago, out of curiosity and a certain amount of naivete
about the purpose of these companies, my wife called a 900 number in
response to a card that came in the mail.
I don't remember what the offer was, but my wife ended up disconnecting
the call when she realized the value of the offer would soon be
exceeded by the cost of the call.
Anyway, we are now being deluged with similar offerings in the mail.
I mean we are getting these things about three or four times a week.
Most of them are postcards that say we have "Definitely won one of the
following prizes ... Please call 1 900 xxx xxxx to claim your prize."
There is always a one inch square that contains about 500 words in
three point type, disclaiming the need to make a call ("You can mail
us this card, but of course that will take weeks and weeks, so why not
call and get your prize NOW!") and listing the prize odds as
confusingly as possible, but always 1:1000000 for the cash prize and
1:1 for the junk prize.
The cards aren't really a problem, they come in the mail, I drop them
in the trash. I just wondered if the one time response flagged us as
suckers for this kind of junk or is everyone getting flodded with
these offers?