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Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:06 pm

This has been circulating among designers. It is NOT 100% risky free. This is basically Spec work. I just want some opinions on it.

It's dodgy atleast.

Quote:

Teresa Ferguson Photography

Visalia, California

www.teresafergusonphoto.com

(559) 303- 6297 ~ (559) 635-1612

I need your help….

Here’s how it will work

There will only be 1000 tickets sold. It is decided that there will be 5 winners of the logo contest and 5 winners of the slogan contest, with one additional, it depends on how many of each I get. Number of entries per contest will decide the final odds. In other words, there may only be 50 logo entries…and 950 slogan entries. This is an estimate; there is no way of calculating odds until all entries are received.

There will be two first place winners and 10 runners-up prizes at total of 12 prizes adding up to $42,250 in cash:

1st Place Slogan - $15,000

1st Place logo- $15,000

2 - 2nd Places - $2,500 (1 logo – 1 slogan)

2 - 3rd Places - a complete 7 hour wedding package (valued at $2,400 or cash value of 1,500)

2 - 4th places - $1000 each

2 - 5th places - $750.00

1 – 6th place - $500.00

1 - 7th place – family portrait session with everything included (or cash Value $250)

My mission:

To conduct a fair, exciting, good spirited Slogan and Logo contest where the winner is judged on their ability to see a vision for Teresa Ferguson Photography.

Entrance Fee

The entrance fee is $100 per entry. You can enter both the slogan and the logo, but will need an entrance fee for each one.

Log on to www.teresafergusonphoto.com under Contest Rules for more information…..

Contest ends July 31, 2008

Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:35 pm

That's a nice one, but they will need a gamble license or something like it to make it legal, so why don't you do them a favor and report it Wink

Register on the website as they pay up to $30.000 for winners.
Would be a fun one to enter, but as she will only pay if she had a 1000 contestants she is getting the better part I think
1000x$100 = 100.000
first 2x15.000 = 30.000
second 2x2.500= 5.000
third 2*1.500=3.000
fourth 2x1.000= 2.000
fifth 2x 750= 1.500
sixth 1x250=250
seventh 1x250=500
So she gets 100.000-42.250= very nice profit, I would say she's in there for the money, the slogan should just be GREED Exclamation

Quote:

Registrant:
Teresa Ferguson
1918 Bradford Street
Greensboro, North Carolina 27405
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: TERESAFERGUSONPHOTO.COM
Created on: 21-Dec-07
Expires on: 21-Dec-08
Last Updated on: 21-Dec-07

Administrative Contact:
PhotoBiz, PhotoBiz [email protected]
1918 Bradford Street
Greensboro, North Carolina 27405
United States
(336) 272-7741 Fax --

Technical Contact:
PhotoBiz, PhotoBiz [email protected]
1918 Bradford Street
Greensboro, North Carolina 27405
United States
(336) 272-7741 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:
NS.RACKSPACE.COM
NS2.RACKSPACE.COM

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: TERESAFERGUSONPHOTO.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS.RACKSPACE.COM
Name Server: NS2.RACKSPACE.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 21-dec-2007
Creation Date: 21-dec-2007
Expiration Date: 21-dec-2008

>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:17:57 EDT <<<

The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and
Registrars.

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:28 am

gambling licenses: Not sure since it is not decided by chance, it is a judged contest.

Greed: Pure capitalism. Do you know how much you can buy price-marked happy Shopper stuff for, wholesale? Profit on retail values for silly stuff like hand soap and bog roll can be 30-70% depending on what they think they can get away with. I would be uncomfortable if any of the contracts I was involved with made less than 30% overall. Your calculation of a profit margin of around 58% before taxes and other expenses, assuming 1000 entrants, is at least realistic for the world as we know it.

Of course, this still doesn't mean you have a hope in hell of ever seeing your money again, or that the prize winners are not pre-selected, or that taxes are paid properly Wink

The dead giveaway for me is that they are paying anyone at all for logos and propaganda that they will not use. Company branding is important to keep tightly controlled and anything that isn't your one and only logo or slogan is useless.

It's either a fiddle or very badly thought out. It will attract amateurs and chancers and scare off everyone else.

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:35 am

Read the contest rules.

The short of it.

By law she MUST pay out IF you win something. Any problemswith the entrees can be considered "void" without anything saying what happens afterwards. Also no word on who the judges are beyond herself. Additionally, while U.S. law prohibits family etc from joining it doesn't say that friends can't join.

Here's how I see it. She starts the contest. Gets about 2000 (conservative) estimate. Considers 90% of them "void", and gives the prizes to her top friends and business partners. Taking in 2000 designs that they were PAID to recieve.

Am I good to send in a report? And if so, how do I go about it?

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

Question/Suggestion.

How about letting her local newspaper/tv station know-i'm sure she'd love the free publicity?

Can that be done-is it ethical etc etc

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:40 am

^ I like that idea.

edit add on: By the way does it make a difference that this was a focused email at designers?

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:17 am

Only if you claim that designers are special people that fall outside the normal laws Laughing

Edit: I still see it as gambling though, you deliver an idea (or list of numbers) pay up and can than win something.
You can of course decide to pay through WU, I heard that can take a long time Twisted Evil

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:22 am

This looks like a raffle to me (I am not an attorney, though I have played one on the internet). Raffles are illegal in CA , except for nonprofit organizations that are registered with the State. In a raffle a ticket (means of participating) has to be purchased

The CA Attorney General said this about raffles.

Here are some bits of information with references regarding contests in CA. I wouldn’t do a contest as a business owner it is risky.

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