Scam-fearing winners refuse prizes

22 October 2008 11:04am

A promotion run by information service 118 118 hit an unexpected problem after winners refused to accept a cash prize for fear of being scammed.

The service said 89 of the 288 winners refused to take £118 in prize money.

The promotion ran from October 1 to October 12 and gave every person who called 118 118 the chance to win £118.

The randomly selected winners were promptly called back to be told they had won the cash.

However, 29% refused to accept the money, with most saying they were suspicious of fraudulent spam and scam calls.

The service said it was now struggling to convince the winners to take the cash, and had resorted to placing their names on the 118 118 website.

Spokesman William Ostrom said: "It was the strangest thing. We were calling people to give them money and they were refusing. In these credit crunched times we couldn't even give money away.

"It appears that people's wariness has been caused by experience of fraudulent calls, spam and 'too good to be true' offers with strings attached.

"We are planning to repeat our offer in November to give away much more - £1,180,000 - so we hope we don't have the same problem again."

© The Press Association