Yeah, that guy's gonna make a fortune. Good for him though, it is a good idea and I would have did it if I thought of it. Think about it. ... he doesn't even need any investment money. Simply buy the products with the ticket money.
That was on MOSR? At one point they had *real* advertising. Sign of the times...
The guy tries to trick you by saying that the profits go to charity (he even has you pick which charity so if you win then the proceeds go to the charities you selected), but further reading shows that between 10 and 20% of the profits will go to charity.
So this guy pockets the rest.
What a brilliant scam. He's going to make money hand over fist.
You can enter without paying money, but if you do chances of winning go down dramatically. I don't think this is legal so I'm thinking of reporting this guy. He doesn't deserve to make money through such a scam... no way. Although with good odds a 10$ ticket will get you a sweet laptop, probably without any tax to be paid or anything (since this guy is probably doing it all under the table.).
OK, haven't had a chance to look into the charity bit.. but how is this a scam?
Seems honest..
but, I'm not entering.
Who's to say he doesn't just make up the names he gives the prizes to? Now that I think about it, I do seem to recall some negative comments about this site awhile back.
[quote] Caveat Emptor: Mac users shouldn't fall prey to web Mac raffle
Posted Tuesday, August 7, 2001 by General Lee
Â*
We noticed yesterday that a new Mac site has sprung up. Thinking we had seen it all, we clicked, and while we weren't surprised by MacRaffle.com, we were disappointed. (Apparently their DNS doesn't work well, try this link if your first attempt at the domain doesn't work. )
Here are the problems associated with this site:
Raffles, like lotteries, play on the hopes of the Mac community, many of which are kids who don't yet have the income to buy a dream Mac such as the one they're supposedly offering as the top prize. We personally think it's not within the spirit of the Mac community.
At 2,500 tickets total for the top prize, that's $37,500 at the price of $15. The Mac costs around $12,000, so the supposed owner of the site, "Monophase L.L.C." pockets a cool $25,000.
That's just the moral issues behind a raffle, which is basically a lottery. There are tons of legal issues as well. First, traditional buy-a-ticket raffles are illegal in many states, a felony now in Oklahoma and illegal in New Mexico, to name two examples. In the majority of the rest of the state, extensive licenses must be filled out, or raffles are limited to non-profits. Monophase L.L.C. and its $25,000 haul are certainly not non-profit.
The research done by the Berner-Garde Foundation sums it up the best:
There is a variety of laws and opinions regarding internet raffles. Most of the information leads to the conclusion that it is unlawful to hold a raffle on the internet. Investigation has shown that:
1. Each state has its own Raffle laws. States where raffles are legal have their own separate rules and regulations for holding raffles. In states where raffles are legal some type of raffle license must be obtained from the pertinent state office.
2. Raffles are considered a form of gambling. Gambling is carefully monitored by state and federal regulations. The three basic criteria that satisfy the definition of gambling are: (1) a prize is awarded; (2) the winner of the prize is determined purely by chance; and (3) some consideration or payment is required to participate.
3. Although each state has its own raffle rules, if the BMDCA were to hold an internet raffle we would be crossing interstate lines. For instance, in the state of Oklahoma, raffles are illegal. We cannot research and obtain a raffle license in each state. It would be impractical and non-cost effective.
We have contacted state raffle offices, the US Justice Department and researched the Internet. Although we have not found a written law saying specifically "no internet raffles," we have got enough information to conclude that it is illegal.
In light of the above information and after extensive discussion, the BMDCA Board of Directors has adopted a policy that the BMDCA shall not directly participate in Internet raffles.
So Internet raffles that do exist are still operating solely because someone hasn't shut them down yet. We checked on Ohio's specific raffle laws: a raffle must be conducted by a non-profit on file with the IRS.
This is our favorite part of the MacRaffle.com site:
Q- How do I know that the raffle is legitimate?
A good question. Some gaming on the Internet is unregulated and people do take advantage of that, but we at Monophase L.L.C., the owner and operater of MacRaffle.com, operate a honest raffle, where winners are always drawn.
"Q: Why don't you suck?" "A: Because at Official Sounding Company, LLC, We don't suck" is not a very reassuring argument, is it?
At least other raffles have the good sense of operating from such reputable locales as The Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies.
A little research into the background of "Monophase, L.L.C." shows that the company also operates CarRaffler.com and ComputerWebMall.com, which merely resells a larger corporation's retail products and gives Monophase a cut. Their 888 number leads to a voicemail system, like those provided by UReach.com virtually anonymously. Perhaps most telling is Monophase's site "r-revolution" which seems to be an "underground culture" website.
Then there's RGW Productions, a division of Monophase L.L.C., which is participating in the "Moshing World Order Showcase" soon. Its CEO is a "Zach Heffran" who lives at 550 E. Florence Lot#350 in Toledo, Ohio. If you're wondering what 'Lot 350' means, that's right, Zach lives at East Lane Mobile Manor, a trailer park, according to this and this. Zach has another address listed on this page that's right near some railroad tracks. And folks, we also found a picture of ol' Zach here, which we've mirrored here in case the first is removed. Here's another pic and another, and another which we don't care to put on our servers. Couldn't find any pictures of Corey, unfortunately.
As you can see, this whole operation is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Our advice to the Mac user out there is to 100% absolutely do not give one red cent of your money to this website. It's illegal and you are likely to get screwed.
<hr></blockquote>
Hilarious. I'm gonna hafta start reading bite.org on a regular basis.
[quote]Hilarious. I'm gonna hafta start reading bite.org on a regular basis.<hr></blockquote>
Good luck, he hasn't updated his site in over a month.
He had this thing a loooong time ago, where he was going to mail Ryan Meader a big box of cow shit, and you could PayPal a dollar or two to him to get your initials on the box. Of course, I jumped all over it.
He kept updating saying it was coming along, etc, and that one guy actually sent in $10! I sent him $2 - what the hell I figured, the laugh would have been worth $2.
The guy went to the bar with the money, I'm sure. He stopped answering my emails.
I used to read that site all the time and thought it was pretty funny, but I guess he's got better things to do... too bad though, because it was funny as hell when it was up.
well i looked into it, and it seems that any raffle in the state of CA can not be conducted over the internet. so its illegal in the state of CA, and since the internet crosses state lines...
"The raffle may not be advertised, operated or conducted over the internet, nor may raffle tickets be sold, traded or redeemed over the internet."
Comments
That was on MOSR? At one point they had *real* advertising. Sign of the times...
So this guy pockets the rest.
What a brilliant scam. He's going to make money hand over fist.
You can enter without paying money, but if you do chances of winning go down dramatically. I don't think this is legal so I'm thinking of reporting this guy. He doesn't deserve to make money through such a scam... no way. Although with good odds a 10$ ticket will get you a sweet laptop, probably without any tax to be paid or anything (since this guy is probably doing it all under the table.).
Seems honest..
but, I'm not entering.
Who's to say he doesn't just make up the names he gives the prizes to? Now that I think about it, I do seem to recall some negative comments about this site awhile back.
<strong>I do seem to recall some negative comments about this site awhile back.</strong><hr></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.bite.org/"; target="_blank">Bite.org</a> ripped on them several times last summer.
[quote] Caveat Emptor: Mac users shouldn't fall prey to web Mac raffle
Posted Tuesday, August 7, 2001 by General Lee
Â*
We noticed yesterday that a new Mac site has sprung up. Thinking we had seen it all, we clicked, and while we weren't surprised by MacRaffle.com, we were disappointed. (Apparently their DNS doesn't work well, try this link if your first attempt at the domain doesn't work. )
Here are the problems associated with this site:
Raffles, like lotteries, play on the hopes of the Mac community, many of which are kids who don't yet have the income to buy a dream Mac such as the one they're supposedly offering as the top prize. We personally think it's not within the spirit of the Mac community.
At 2,500 tickets total for the top prize, that's $37,500 at the price of $15. The Mac costs around $12,000, so the supposed owner of the site, "Monophase L.L.C." pockets a cool $25,000.
That's just the moral issues behind a raffle, which is basically a lottery. There are tons of legal issues as well. First, traditional buy-a-ticket raffles are illegal in many states, a felony now in Oklahoma and illegal in New Mexico, to name two examples. In the majority of the rest of the state, extensive licenses must be filled out, or raffles are limited to non-profits. Monophase L.L.C. and its $25,000 haul are certainly not non-profit.
The research done by the Berner-Garde Foundation sums it up the best:
There is a variety of laws and opinions regarding internet raffles. Most of the information leads to the conclusion that it is unlawful to hold a raffle on the internet. Investigation has shown that:
1. Each state has its own Raffle laws. States where raffles are legal have their own separate rules and regulations for holding raffles. In states where raffles are legal some type of raffle license must be obtained from the pertinent state office.
2. Raffles are considered a form of gambling. Gambling is carefully monitored by state and federal regulations. The three basic criteria that satisfy the definition of gambling are: (1) a prize is awarded; (2) the winner of the prize is determined purely by chance; and (3) some consideration or payment is required to participate.
3. Although each state has its own raffle rules, if the BMDCA were to hold an internet raffle we would be crossing interstate lines. For instance, in the state of Oklahoma, raffles are illegal. We cannot research and obtain a raffle license in each state. It would be impractical and non-cost effective.
We have contacted state raffle offices, the US Justice Department and researched the Internet. Although we have not found a written law saying specifically "no internet raffles," we have got enough information to conclude that it is illegal.
In light of the above information and after extensive discussion, the BMDCA Board of Directors has adopted a policy that the BMDCA shall not directly participate in Internet raffles.
So Internet raffles that do exist are still operating solely because someone hasn't shut them down yet. We checked on Ohio's specific raffle laws: a raffle must be conducted by a non-profit on file with the IRS.
This is our favorite part of the MacRaffle.com site:
Q- How do I know that the raffle is legitimate?
A good question. Some gaming on the Internet is unregulated and people do take advantage of that, but we at Monophase L.L.C., the owner and operater of MacRaffle.com, operate a honest raffle, where winners are always drawn.
"Q: Why don't you suck?" "A: Because at Official Sounding Company, LLC, We don't suck" is not a very reassuring argument, is it?
At least other raffles have the good sense of operating from such reputable locales as The Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies.
A little research into the background of "Monophase, L.L.C." shows that the company also operates CarRaffler.com and ComputerWebMall.com, which merely resells a larger corporation's retail products and gives Monophase a cut. Their 888 number leads to a voicemail system, like those provided by UReach.com virtually anonymously. Perhaps most telling is Monophase's site "r-revolution" which seems to be an "underground culture" website.
Then there's RGW Productions, a division of Monophase L.L.C., which is participating in the "Moshing World Order Showcase" soon. Its CEO is a "Zach Heffran" who lives at 550 E. Florence Lot#350 in Toledo, Ohio. If you're wondering what 'Lot 350' means, that's right, Zach lives at East Lane Mobile Manor, a trailer park, according to this and this. Zach has another address listed on this page that's right near some railroad tracks. And folks, we also found a picture of ol' Zach here, which we've mirrored here in case the first is removed. Here's another pic and another, and another which we don't care to put on our servers. Couldn't find any pictures of Corey, unfortunately.
As you can see, this whole operation is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Our advice to the Mac user out there is to 100% absolutely do not give one red cent of your money to this website. It's illegal and you are likely to get screwed.
<hr></blockquote>
Hilarious. I'm gonna hafta start reading bite.org on a regular basis.
There's more <a href="http://www.bite.org/archive/arc7-2001.html"; target="_blank">here</a>.
guhuwhuwhuw.
Good luck, he hasn't updated his site in over a month.
He had this thing a loooong time ago, where he was going to mail Ryan Meader a big box of cow shit, and you could PayPal a dollar or two to him to get your initials on the box. Of course, I jumped all over it.
He kept updating saying it was coming along, etc, and that one guy actually sent in $10! I sent him $2 - what the hell I figured, the laugh would have been worth $2.
The guy went to the bar with the money, I'm sure. He stopped answering my emails.
I used to read that site all the time and thought it was pretty funny, but I guess he's got better things to do... too bad though, because it was funny as hell when it was up.
[ 02-18-2002: Message edited by: murbot ]</p>
"The raffle may not be advertised, operated or conducted over the internet, nor may raffle tickets be sold, traded or redeemed over the internet."
links of interest:
<a href="http://www.runquist.com/article_raffles.htm"; target="_blank">Raffles in CA</a>
<a href="http://caag.state.ca.us/charities/raffles.htm"; target="_blank">CA Attorney General Web Site</a>
<strong>If you buy a ticket from macraffle, you're basically giving your money to this guy.
guhuwhuwhuw.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Which one of those is a guy?
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />