Your stuff may be increasingly “smart,” but the security on it almost certainly isn’t. If something of yours connects to the internet, it can be hacked — leaving your private data vulnerable, and potentially sweeping your stuff into an international criminal botnet. Now, the FTC is awarding a cash prize to a developer who’s designed an app to hopefully help you make your stuff more secure. [More]
prizes
App Called RoboKiller Takes Top Prize In FTC’s Anti-Robocall Contest
By 8.17.15
The Federal Trade Commission’s vendetta against robocalls continued today as the agency announced the winner of a contest – and $25,000 – for building an app that blocks and forwards the annoying calls. [More]
Walmart, Target, And CVS Do Not Want Your Credit Card Number To Ship You Free Stuff
By 8.6.15
There’s a new but not all that innovative scam hitting mailboxes in this country and in the United Kingdom. Experienced scam-spotters will see the problem right away, but not everyone is an experienced scam-spotter. Here’s how it works: a postcard arrives in the mail that says there’s a package waiting for you form a popular chain retailer. You just need to call in with your credit card number to claim it. [More]
Everyone Wants To Be The Guy Who Bought Two $1M Lottery Tickets In Three Months
By 7.30.14
How many $1 million dollar lottery tickets have you bought lately? None? Then you’re right there with the rest of us lagging behind an Indiana man who somehow managed to win not one million-dollar jackpot, but two in a span of only three months with his lucky buys. [More]
Woman Wins $5,000 Diamond Prize, Finds Out After Accidentally Swallowing It
By 4.30.13
A fundraiser event in Tampa was sort of a boozy raffle. Guests could pay $20 for a flute of champagne with a clear gemstone at the bottom. Everyone got to drink champagne, and one lucky guest won a diamond worth $5,000. The 80-year-old winner didn’t have to worry about finding a safe place to store the stone on her way home, because she had accidentally swallowed it. [More]
Texas Man Loses 78% Of Tax Refund After Winning Free Donut Coupons At Houston Astros Game
By 4.19.11
Just about everyone likes winning stuff — especially free food and definitely free donuts. But a man in Texas claims that the stack of free donut coupons he scored as a prize at a Houston Astros game caused his federal tax refund to disappear almost as quickly as that team’s hopes of making the World Series. [More]
This Is What Kids Did For Fun In The 80s
By 3.16.10
Josh at GeekSix unearthed a comic book ad that might be familiar to you if you were a kid in the 80s. Olympic Sales Club was one of those door-to-door greeting card companies that enlisted kids across the country to sell crap to neighbors in exchange for merch your parents wouldn’t buy you. [More]
Hey Companies, Little Kids Are Not An Acceptable Sales Force
By 2.23.10
Dale writes to us that his two kids came home tasked with a lame magazine subscription assignment on behalf of a classroom magazine called Weekly Reader. It’s a little sleazy to use kids to pry cash out of the pockets of relatives and friends, and I hold that opinion as both a kid who has had to do it and an adult who has received the manipulative “please help my school!” plea in the mail. [More]
Papa John Shells Out Quarter Mill To Re-Buy Old Car
By 8.26.09
Before John Schnatter founded Papa John’s pizza, he was a struggling businessman. Back in 1983 he was reduced to selling his black and gold 1971 Chevy Camaro Z28 for $2,800 to keep his dad’s bar afloat and to start Papa John’s.
Police Dispatch Log: Taco Bell "Steal A Taco" Promotion Turns Ugly
By 10.29.08
Reader Kevin sent us the following entry from his town’s police dispatch log. It seems that the “Steal A Taco” promotion was causing some problems at the drive-thru window of his local Taco Bell.
The FTC Will Never Ask You For Money Because You Won The Lottery. We Promise.
By 10.23.08
Apparently, some group of geniuses has been calling people and pretending that they are from the FTC. They start out with some nonsense like “Hi, I’m calling from the Federal Trade Commission to tell you that you have won $250,000…”
Tell The Best Personal Finance Horror Story To Mint, Have Your Credit Card Balance Paid Off
By 2.5.08
Do you enjoy confessing embarrassing details? Mint, the personal finance new kid on the Internet block, is offering up to $5,000 (paid directly to your credit card bill) to two people with the most horrifying personal finance disasters. The winners get free financial counseling as well. You can submit text—”sob stories”—up to 1000 words, or a video—”trainwrecks”—up to four minutes or 20 MB, whichever comes first. If you were paid to do any writing over the past year, you’re ineligible (we already checked).
Gibson Awards Prize To Artist As Promised!
By 1.31.08
Yay Internets! Tonedeff—the artist who won Lollapalooza’s Last Band Standing over a year ago but never received the 10k prize package from Gibson—has received his prize. He emailed us today and wrote, “Thanks for covering the story and your support.
UPDATE: Centex Offers New Home To Second Contest Winner
By 11.8.07
DENVER, Nov. 8, 2007 — The Denver division of Centex Homes has offered to give a house to Veronica Baca, one of the original finalists in a disputed home give-away contest in Denver. In addition, the Company has offered to provide furnishings for the home and payment for all reasonable legal fees that Mrs. Baca has incurred.
Congratulations, You Won A House! Oh, Wait, Never Mind.
By 11.8.07
Veronica Baca thought she’d won a new home. She had been named a finalist in a contest. She pulled the lucky key that opened a prize door at halftime of a Broncos game. She toured the house. She agreed to let the company use her image in advertisements. She signed a form titled “Centex House Party Grand Prize Release.” She was even in the local newspaper.
By 7.14.07
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A Minnesota child won a bear with a Viagra ad from a claw machine at a Red Robin restaurant. The bears were part of a Nascar effort to promote its sponsors.
James C., Your Oozinator Is Shipping
By 9.12.06
Unlike other Gawker blogs, we actually send the winners of our contests their prizes. Congrats once again to James C for coming up with one of the winning slogans. We’ll get right on designing that t-shirt….soon…
The Unattainable Coca Cola Couch
By 6.8.06
When I was in school, mysterious state-endorsed hucksters would burst through my classroom door from time to time with arms full of candy bars. These guys would then proceed to gang press us all as unpaid door-to-door candy salesmen. The candy bars (which were usually more peanut and Chinese newspaper than chocolate) were uniformly terrible; moreover, they cost like 5 bucks each. But these guys were smart: they kept us hustling with the promise of prizes for reaching impossible goals. Ten candy bars sold got you a pencil, but a million? A robot dinosaur that transformed into a monster truck. Needless to say, the best prizes were logistically unattainable.
