JEDDAH, 18 October 2005 — How would you like a new car for free? Perhaps you’d like a big pile of riyals instead or some kitchen gadget. During Ramadan, you’ll find no shortage of contests that claim to offer such rewards, but you may find that trying to win your prize is anything but rewarding.
The chance of winning a prize always is tempting, but during Ramadan, the efforts by retailers to attract participants increases to the point of frenzy. Under the banner “Ramadan Kareem” — or Ramadan is generous — they offer huge prizes in the form of millions of riyals, fancy houses or cars. The contests revolve around phone calls, SMS messages or drawings. In spite of the seemingly tempting offers, these contests take advantage of participants by relieving them of money through the phone calls or SMS charges. Since the holy month started, people in Saudi Arabia have received unsolicited SMS contacts from phone numbers starting with 700 asking them to call and claim their prizes.
“I receive dozens of SMS messages daily. Some say, ‘You have won! Call this number 7000**** to discover your prize and get it,’” said Salim Humaid, a 25-year-old Jeddah man.
The trick is that the companies offering the prizes usually use a small part of the profits from inflated SMS charges to contestants to finance the prizes offered. They pocket the rest.
Phone numbers starting with 700 have charges that range from SR5-SR10 per minute, according to the numbers that come after the 700. For example, if the number is 7005**** then the call is SR5 per minute, 7000**** costs SR10 per minute.
When Humaid tried to take part in the contest, all he got was a huge mobile bill.
“I called to check on my prize, and the minutes piled up while I heard the welcomes and greetings to the contest. After that, they asked me electronically many questions that I had to answer in order to win. I didn’t win, and I spent around 20 minutes on a call that is SR10 per minute!”
He said the contests are addictive — until the mobile bill comes and you get a huge shock. TV channels present many contest programs during Ramadan. People from Saudi Arabia must call 7000 numbers or send SMS messages to numbers that start with 8****, which charge SR5 per SMS message in order to participate. These programs receive calls from viewers to answer general questions that are easy most of the time; however, they put callers on hold for several minutes until they get on the air. “When I watch the contest programs, I am surprised by the number of people who call,” said Samia Imam, 36.
“I wonder how they get fooled even if the programs offer thousands of riyals or cars. I think the biggest winners of these contests are the TV channels that air the programs since they get a big percentage of the phone charges. If dozens of viewers call and wait, and sometimes wait for commercials, TV channels will win a lot. Callers who do win will spend a large proportion of the money they won on their phone bills.”
Religious scholars contend that the “700” contests are forbidden. In a religious TV program on one of the Arabic TV channels that receive questions from viewers, a man called to ask about these contests and said he lost SR1,300 in them without winning anything.
“These contests are forbidden since they are like gambling,” the scholar told the caller. “You spend money through your phone calls charges to win more money as prizes, especially that the phone calls charges are big. Buying big money with little money is forbidden in Islam.”
Swindlers also use the many Ramadan contests to cheat people by contacting them claiming to be from the prize offices.
Such a con artist once called Lina, a university student, and told her that she had won SR5 million. “I was surprised, got skeptical, and asked why I was chosen to win the prize among all people. He told me that I won this prize from Nokia because I bought a new Nokia phone, which was coincidentally true, so I kind of believed it,” Lina said.
The caller asked her for her bank account number to transfer the money to it and her full name, which she gave to him.
“He kept me on hold for more than 40 minutes saying that he was still transferring it and that I must stay on hold during the process,” Lina said. She started wondering if she was being swindled out of her bank account.
“I went immediately to the first ATM I could find and got all the money I had,” Lina said. “I really felt silly that I was fooled and don’t participate in these contests anymore.”
In supermarkets and Ramadan festivals, many drawings for huge prizes take place. In one supermarket drawing, the grand prize was a luxury car along with many other smaller prizes.
“One of the organizers of the drawing was my friend. He told me that the car wouldn’t be won by anyone, and that they had presented it only to attract people to come to the supermarket. People can win the other prizes, but not the car that many people came hoping to win,” said Badr Mohamed, a Saudi engineer. “They fool people, and I consider it as trickery — and during the holy month.”
So who are the real winners? The biggest cash winners are the contest promoters who the odds always favor. But the real winners are those people who observe Ramadan as it was meant to be observed — and leave the contests alone.
Ramadan Kareem.
