Terry Ambrose

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The iPhone 6 contest scams

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Iphone 6 image from Apple.com
Iphone 6 image from Apple.com. [tweetthis]Stay away from too-good-to-be-true contests[/tweetthis]
You may have heard the news already, there are shipping delays for the iPhone 6. No wonder, given that the new phone broke even Apple’s own sales records. So, what does this have to do with scams? Not a thing—unless you’re looking for a way to win a new phone in one of the many contests currently being offered.

Let’s take a closer look at one of the most popular on Facebook. It’s called “Win Free Apple iPhone 6.” This contest has a number of steps you must go through to enter. Contests, of course, run rampant on Facebook and the social media giant doesn’t endorse them because they want to avoid liability. However, whoever is behind this contest has stepped back even further. The only thing they’re using the Facebook page for is to lure in more entries. To me, this seems a bit fishy. Let’s dig deeper.

[mckenna float=”right”]To actually enter the contest, you go to a website called win-iphone6.com. Wow. Someone set up a website specifically to give away an iPhone 6? Very generous of them. Not so much. The website owner is not located in the US, but in Australia. The IP address of the server for the website (where the actual web files are located) is in . . . take a guess—it begins with a B and ends with an A and has an are-you-kidding-me? in the middle. Oh my, that would be Bulgaria.

Lest you still want to enter this contest, here’s one more thing to consider. Here are the steps you must go through to enter the contest:

  1. Like the contest page on Facebook
  2. Share the contest page on Facebook
  3. Download a file from the website

If you weren’t worried before, you should by now be running for the door. However, if you still want to win that iPhone 6 despite the potential costs, be my guest. There are quite likely some legitimate contests on the web to win an i-Phone 6. Bear in mind, however, that in the long run it could be a whole lot cheaper just to pay retail.

About Terry

I started out as a skip tracer. Just in case you don’t know, that’s the guy who finds the people who don’t want to be found. It was the little things—getting paid to lie—that made skip tracing the fun part of the job.

Those years of chasing deadbeats taught me many valuable life lessons, such as liars come from all walks of life, and always keep your car in the garage.

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Comments

  1. preta4 says

    Yes, it’s very helpful but you mean to tell me there are NO “legitimate” ways to win one, even though I’ve seen show host such as Wendy Williams and a few others say you can do it through their sites???

    • admin says

      I’m not saying there are no legitimate ways to win one. You have to consider the source of the giveaway. For instance, a talk show has a promotional budget. They could easily afford to buy some of the phones and run a contest. Remember that even if you win one of these, you’ll need a data plan and that can get expensive (if you’re not used to having a data plan, that is).