by Susan Ives, Alamo PC

Sweepstakes are free contests, much like those you would find stuffed into a cereal box or delivered to your mailbox by Ed McMahon. No purchase necessary! Fill out this form, they promise, and we’ll enter you in a drawing to win big. 

Online sweepstakes have the same motivation as the traditional ones. They want to get information about you. Traditional sweeps want your address and phone number so they can make telemarketing calls during the dinner hour or send you junk mail. Online sweeps want something too — your e-mail address. You are trading a small hunk of your privacy for a chance at winning. 

The other motivation for online sites is that they want you to keep coming back to their site. Many sweeps allow you to enter once a day . . .  so you keep returning. You probably even bookmark the site. They get to flash new ads at you. Maybe get you to buy something. 

Here are 7 lucky tips to make you a winner with online sweepstakes.

1 Do the free ones
There are plenty of free sweepstakes. Don’t pay to enter. Never give a credit card number to someone you don’t know and be especially wary if it’s overseas, in an area not subject to US law, in a tax haven like the Cayman Islands. Never give out info about your checking account. 

2. Who’s offering the prize?
I’d feel better giving my personal information to a company that I have heard about rather than Ripuoff Dot  Com. Proctor and Gamble isn’t going to try to charge you $1,000 shipping on a $10 prize. Some of the intriguing one’s I’ve seen are:

• Pert Shampoo, a VW Beetle
• Universal Studios, a trip to Grinchmas
• Saks Fifth Ave. a trip to Aspen
• National Geographic, a trip for two to Africa
• Nabisco,: either a See-Doo Watercraft or two Mac computers
• Pendleton offers a monthly chance for a free wool blanket

3. Read the fine print
Here is an excerpt from the contest rules for a sweepstakes 
 

But don’t stop at reading the contest rules. Also search for the company’s privacy policy. A favorable policy will specifically say that they will not collect any information on children without a parent’s permission; that they will not give or sell personal information without your permission and that any other marketing information collected — such as your age or income level — will only be used as part of aggregated statistics, with individual identities protected.  The privacy statements and contest rules can be pages and pages of legal mumbo-jumbo, or they can be clear and simple. Read them anyway. 

4.  Protect your privacy
If it bothers you to get junk e-mail, don’t play.  The consumer gurus at KMOL told me that when researching their spot on online sweepstakes they set up a separate mail account and used that for all of their entries. The volume of mail wasn’t as bad as they feared, but it was still considerable. Toward the end of the project they entered one contest that generated at least one e-mail per day.

Many people set up a free e-mail account at  Hotmail  or  Yahoo  that they use for online registrations to keep their regular box uncluttered. Never use your employee e-mail account. People have been fired for less.

Also, read the instructions carefully. Many of the registration forms have boxes that you have to deliberately UNcheck if you do not want the company to share your information with other companies or if you do not want to receive an e-mail newsletter. 

Be careful about what kind of personal information you release. NEVER give out your social security number or mother’s maiden name, as this information is used by identity thieves to do illegal things like apply for credit cards in your name. 

A resource for learning more about online privacy is the Electronic Frontier Foundation; they have 12 tips.

5. Get a separate credit card
If you do pay for sweepstakes tickets (or gamble online, or buy lotto tickets online from an intermediary) get a separate credit card with a two or three hundred dollar limit that you just use for this. If you get ripped off, your liability is limited and you don’t mess up your regular credit card.

6. Don’t pay for auto entry
Some third parties charge to automatically enter you in sweepstakes. Don’t do it. Many sweeps disqualify auto entries, and you’re just turning over your personal info to a third party that you know nothing about.

7. Visit sweeps sites
There are several sites on the Internet that offer pointers and advice, discussion boards and software helpers for  entering sweepstakes. Two of the best appear to be: <www.thewinnersclub.net>, <www.sweepstakesonline.com>

Susan Ives, a former president of Alamo PC, hasn't won an Alamo PC drawing in months but her luck is about to change!