Instagram Luck or Cheating the golf "Giveaway" System?

[RealNickG]

First off, feel free to blast me if you feel this is wrong, but I've got a hunch it's not. 

 

As some people do, I entered one of those "re-post this, tag a friend, win a prize" things on Instagram by a famous golfer. It's harmless, I never win, but the idea of getting a signed flag or tournament swag interests me. So, the contest ends, pro golfer X posts in his story the winners name. Out of morbid curiosity I click on it, not sure why, it wasn't me who won, but I was curious since it was a pretty cool little giveaway with tons of Players Championship swag. Well, this brought me down quite a little 20-min rabbit hole. I noticed this lady (IG Screenname: jcam007) wins quite a bit, like oddly quite a bit. Being someone who has never won one of these damn things I kept looking at just how many she has won. 

 

Well, turns out she wins multiple times per week, for a long time now. I'm not saying she's not lucky, but c'mon. I commented on her giveaway win from the Arnold Palmer (yes, she won that giveaway too) and simply said "How do you win so much?" and I was immediately blocked. This was what raised my red flag. Is there a scam? Is she cheating the online giveaway system? If she had said "I'm just lucky" I probably could have rationalized it, but by blocking me for simply asking I knew all I needed to know. Thankfully I took a bunch of screenshots before she did this, they are below. She only ever enters once, not a million times which would statistically make her odds better, always tags the same few people, and wins quite a bit. 

 

Again, maybe I'm way off base here and going on some sort of purposeless witch hunt, which I will gladly agree to and delete this post with my tail tucked, but I need someone to explain to me how this is possible. Since her page is not private, I'll repost to publicly available info here for you all to make you opinions. I've done my hour of work on this and am moving on, but just some food for thought going forward. 

 

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by RealNickG
Added photos

[ae1985]

Could be a friend or family member of something working for the giveaway

 

edit: that cant be. it's all different companies.

Edited March 14, 2023 by ae1985

[AlohaPineapple]

if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...

[MattM97]

How many of those giveaway were "tag as many friends as you wish"? Cause she could just spam like hundreds of tags and just bumps the odds through the roof. I never enter those cause I know people just tag for days. If they were the "Tag a friend" or "Tag 3 friends" then hard to say. 

[Abh159]

Not saying this is the case here, but some people literally make a job out of entering online giveaways/contests. 

 

I read an article on these people one time and it was pretty crazy. Essentially they spend 10-12 hours a day entering literally every single contest they can find. One of the people featured in the article mainly entered travel contests and was winning 3 or 4 trips a month.

[kmay__]

Are the pictures she posts her own pictures of the giveaway items once she's received them? Or is she just reposting the same image from the page doing the giveaway... that would spark my curiosity... If I won something, and chose to post about it, I would wait til I have the items in my possession and post my own picture of them, if she's just re posting the original image each time that would seem fishy. 

 

It does seem strange that so many different companies would be in on the same scheme, but maybe its a burner account companies use so they don't actually have to give anything away for free. Nowadays there is no limit to the fake sh*t and manipulation. 

 

But like mentioned above some people are just hardcore with the entries, maybe she's retired and sits on her phone all day entering contests 🤷‍♂️

Edited March 14, 2023 by kmay__

[kwcsports]

Seems weird to win so much, I agree with you.

[Mitchell]

Just ask @Ferguson, the JoAnn fabrics ladies are not to be trifled with, best just to acknowledge them and keep it moving.

[SE Gamer]

2 minutes ago, Mitchell said:

Just ask @Ferguson, the JoAnn fabrics ladies are not to be trifled with, best just to acknowledge them and keep it moving.

 

I was briefly a manager for a large retail pharmacy store back in college. If the ladies you describe are anything like the extreme coupon women we encountered, you are absolutely correct.

[Ferguson]

4 minutes ago, Mitchell said:

Just ask @Ferguson, the JoAnn fabrics ladies are not to be trifled with, best just to acknowledge them and keep it moving.

 

Sage advice.   

[jholz]

I'd find better people and causes to be jealous of. Joann Campbell of NY looks like she serously sucks.

 

Let her have this small win. She probably needs it real bad.

[Roody]

One sec while I get my tin foil hat on...

 

I've always thought in the back of my mind that a lot of these giveaways never actually pay out the prize. Like what is to stop them from saying "Congrats to Joey Baggodonuts from Timbuctu, Arizona on winning our big giveaway!" - how would anyone really know if that was a legit winner that they actually paid out? Maybe just scams in order to collect people's info? 

</ConspiracyTheory>

[third-times-a-charm]

The actual accounts doing the giveaways 'cheat' as well. Many times they dont actually do drawings and just let their friends win. Other times they let fake IG accounts or their own burner accounts win so nothing ever gets given away.

 

And yes there's ways to game the system with social media giveaways.

 

It's all BS - all it does is give the person doing the giveaway more engagement, followers, etc and the losers entering the giveaways are basically patsies - free robots to do all of their work for them so they sit higher in the social media alogrithms.

[MikeW2]

Please tell me she hasn’t replied to the XXIO driver giveaway here! I’d really like to win.

[balbowski]

I assume that was your comment/profile on the ladies post that made her block you. Made me think of the Horrible Bosses 2 bit where they are pitching their shower thing on a morning show. 
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ONmQpxFWVo

 

[balbowski]

I have never one a contest thing on there though, I have no clue how they actually win something. 

[RealNickG]

20 hours ago, MattM97 said:

How many of those giveaway were "tag as many friends as you wish"? Cause she could just spam like hundreds of tags and just bumps the odds through the roof. I never enter those cause I know people just tag for days. If they were the "Tag a friend" or "Tag 3 friends" then hard to say. 

I checked, she always enters only once, which is why the high amount of winning is suspect. If she entered hundreds of times I could see simply from the greater amount of entries, but to only enter once and win so much just seems very odd to me. 

[MiniJ83]

On 3/14/2023 at 10:48 AM, Abh159 said:

Not saying this is the case here, but some people literally make a job out of entering online giveaways/contests. 

 

I read an article on these people one time and it was pretty crazy. Essentially they spend 10-12 hours a day entering literally every single contest they can find. One of the people featured in the article mainly entered travel contests and was winning 3 or 4 trips a month.

This. I had an old work buddy that used to teach seminars on winning these contests. I couldn’t believe the amount of giveaways he won. 

[LPSISCO]

She should play the lottery instead; she’s so “lucky” she’d be retired on a beach in Bora Bora by now