New Steps to Prevent Competition Spam
Feedback
Hi all,
Just tagging in people I saw commenting on a recent spam competition post - Jaycee5 Dendav mikebatho CyrilRowlands - thanks for commenting and reporting the post 
I've just put live some new efforts to prevent people signing up to LD to spam their fake/fraudulent competitions. It's a bit of a never-ending battle as they keep coming up with new ways to bypass the systems we put in place. But fear not - I'm stubborn and don't like losing so we'll prevail in the end 
The best thing to do is exactly what you all have been - commenting on a post to say it isn't legit and reporting the post too. Please do comment even if someone has done beforehand. Sometimes we haven't heard of the particular site in question and a series of comments is a lot more damning (and therefore easier for us to justify banning) than just one comment where the poster may have just had an unfortunate experience.
Whilst I have the compers' attention - if you have any further feedback or suggestions please do comment below - we're always looking to improve! 
Hi. Thanks for email.
Can something also be done about people already posting contests that are on site.
I know some have long finish dates so may get missed.
But there needs to be a system / data base that picks up duplicates.
You sometimes doubt if You have entered?
Thanks Dendav
Hey Thanks for the feedback.
We have an automated system that detects duplicates by URL - unfortunately if the URL is different we can't currently automatically detect it and rely on user reports instead.
If you have any ideas as to other ways we could try and automatically detect duplicates please do let us know - we're willing to try most things!
I do think the spammers are easier to check if people can be asked to give the name of the promoter. I have mentioned it before and I realise it is hard to police but it also saves time wasted clicking onto sites for comps already entered or from sites that I don't use. It seems now to be rare for people to put the name of the magazine/company etc. in the heading.
Morning The promoters name should now appear on competition pages - hopefully that's what you meant but if you'd like any tweaks/changes please let me know
Hey carlp666 I'm sure the seasoned compers will be able to help you out more than I can but LD does do a fair amount of legwork to automatically filter out fake competitions.
You can always have a quick google of the domain name before entering to see if it has positive/negative feedback.
Regardless I'd always sign up with alias details (rather than your every-day email address) as it's very difficult to enter competitions and avoid that email address being spammed!
I wonder if perhaps ngai has any advice (don't feel obliged!)
First part to reply to carlp666, Check the T&C's quite often you'll find something like this.
I certify that I am a Resident of the UK over the age of 18, and I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions and understand that my contact details can be used for marketing purposes for telephone, SMS, email & mail contact
by our sponsors and selected 3rd parties. I give consent for my details to be passed on to regulated
claims Management companies for the purposes of financial claims (such as claims for miss-sold PPI and
claims for Packaged Bank Accounts Fees.).
(That is from UKPrize.)
Watch the URL after pressing the "Enter Competition" button, if the URL changes a few times, then they are
hiding their correct address to get round any preventive measures, Kelsey may have installed.
I check competitions through Google that don't seem right. If it feels dodgy, I leave it, there are plenty of other
competitions out there.
I have a dual sim phone, one sim exclusively for competitions, seperate email address and use my second name
"Tom" in all entries. a miss spell in your address such as the name of your area, "Chelcea instead of Chelsea".
Entering competitions means you will get spam. Mail lists are constantly sold on,
you can check that using https://haveibeenpwned.com/ a site that checks for data breaches.
Kelsey I do agree with Jaycee5, if people enter competitions using something like,
"Win 5 huge gutbusting Doughnuts with Krispy Kreme" including the name of the site offering competitions
it makes it much easier to sort, duplicates, spam or errors such as when the URL gets corrupted.
Bet you wish you never asked!! 
I agree with the points that Ngai has made (spellcheck insists the name must be capitalised).
Ask yourself why the competition has been posted. Most will be a company promoting their products or services or magazines wanting clicks for advertising and so the reason is obvious. There are plenty of these. PrizeDeck and Winit are ok.
If it is just a company putting up a competition, I generally avoid them just to be on the safe side. They can be genuine as some make money through affiliated links but it is not unusual for them to still sell on your details (such as www.theprizefinder.com) so I would still avoid them. snizl.com is another that I have seen on Latest Deals. This is genuine but when I checked it I found that it uses an Algerian server and the holder of the domain name is unknown so I avoid it but I wouldn't report it as spam because I know that other people think it is ok.
If you google 'SuperLuckyme Di Coke's Blog' she has a lot of helpful advice. Go to the comping tips tab, then List of UK Competition websites and then Spam Generating survey and Competition sites. There is a long list and you won't remember them all but it is a good place to check if in doubt. If you don't see it there, but still aren't sure, you can ask her in the comments section and she responds quite quickly.
Alternatively, if in doubt, move on to another one. There are a number that I don't do that are probably ok.
Don't be in a hurry to be the first to enter a competition unless you are 100% sure. See if other people flag it up but that can take a few hours.
I have noticed that the posters putting up these competitions are often doing it for the first time and they don't respond to comments. If you click their name, their only involvement in the site is that one competition.
As others have said, you will get some spam just by doing competitions and personally I just find it a minor irritation now that they go into a separate folder and can just be deleted with one click.
These spam generating sites though also sell on your full details including your phone number and at worst you could get reverse call texts and phone calls. It is worth signing up to Telephone Preference Service which you can do easily online. This has only happened to me once in decades of doing competitions and I got it stopped and my phone company did not charge me (they are not obliged to refund the cost) so it is not a big risk but you obviously need to minimise it.
Sites like MyOffers all seem to use the same format of form and you get to recognise it. Their name does not come up until you have filled out the first page of their form. If you have filled in one page of details and you then go to another one, go out of the site immediately. No competition needs more than one page of details and the less the better.
The companies supplying the prize themselves can be a bit pesky but, again, that is relatively rare. I did a competition run by a company that sells deaf aids through a reputable site and they kept calling me and asking me how my hearing is. Once I had stopped that, they started junk mailing me. There is also a company called HelloFresh that is a pest so I wouldn't enter any that they are doing. I had to block their number.
Overall, the prizes I have had have made the problems worthwhile and they are fairly easily avoided or dealt with so don't let this put you off.
Activeyou is one to avoid. They seem to be advertising widely at the moment. They tell people they have won but people have to subscribe to claim and then they send texts costing £1.50 each.
They are described by Easycounter as "not safe for kids and looks fraudulent".
I think that Easycounter is better than Scamadviser at warning about scams.
I have never heard of easycounter, I always use Scamadvisor, but might have to trial it next time I see a comp or website I am not sure about.
I hadn't heard of either scamadviser or easycounter, but I'll be bookmarking both, thank you.
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