Giveaway scams: the FTC's signs, the brands' own notices and what makes a giveaway legit
Giveaway scams announce themselves by what they ask for: the Federal Trade Commission says having to pay to get a prize, or to improve your odds, is a scam. The FTC adds that there is absolutely no reason to give a bank account or credit card number, or a Social Security number, to claim any prize. California's attorney general defines the legitimate case in one line: sweepstakes are free and by chance.
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When a giveaway is legit: free entry, chance and a named brand
Gleam's guide on whether giveaways are real answers yes: many are, especially when reputable brands run them, and it calls giveaways a legitimate marketing strategy that brands use to increase visibility, leads and engagement. That describes the format. It does not vouch for any one post, page or account that uses the format.
California's attorney general supplies the working test: legitimate sweepstakes are free and by chance. A giveaway that fits that sentence, and names a brand the entrant can contact directly, has passed the first check; one that asks for money, or hides who runs it, has not. The same test is the quickest filter against giveaway scams that borrow a brand's name.
An organiser the entrant can reach without the message's help is the second part of the test. The FTC's advice to find the real company's contact information yourself only works when there is a real company to find, which is why a named brand with a contact route counts for more than a bare account name.
Fake giveaway scams: pay first, hurry up, or send some back
The FTC's page on fake prize, sweepstakes and lottery scams reduces a fake giveaway to a short list of asks, and each one can be read straight off the message. Whether a giveaway is fake or real comes down to what it asks the winner to do, and these four are the FTC's own list.
The signs do not change with the platform. A demand for payment reads the same on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram or in a text message, because the FTC's list is about what is asked of the winner, not where the message appeared.
- Pay to get the prize: the FTC says that if you have to pay to get your prize, it is a scam.
- Pay to improve your odds: the FTC says that if you have to pay to increase your odds of winning, it is a scam.
- Hurry: scammers pressure you to act now to get a prize, or to hurry up and pay or give them information.
- Send some back: scammers send you a check and ask you to send some of the money back.
Reddit's promotion rules: no unrealistic claims or promises of winnings
Reddit's rules for running promotions tell organisers never to make unrealistic claims, promises of winnings or any other inaccurate or misleading statements in a promotion or its rules. A post that claims winnings in advance therefore breaks Reddit's own rule before anything else about it is checked.
A member's account of a giveaway scam on Reddit is one person's report. Reddit's rule governs how a promotion is worded, not whether a particular giveaway paid out, and nothing in it confirms or clears any named organiser.
Cadbury giveaway scam: the free hamper post the company did not write
Snopes quotes Cadbury on a circulating social media post that claimed to offer consumers a hamper of free Cadbury products: the company confirms the post was not generated by Cadbury, which makes it a fake Cadbury offer. The statement is the company's own words, and that is the kind of evidence worth looking for, because a famous name in a post is not proof that the famous name posted it.
Cadbury urges people not to interact with the post or share personal information through it. That advice matches the FTC's general line on unsolicited prize messages: do not respond, and find the real company's contact information yourself.
Giveaway scam email and text: Asda's warning and the FTC's link rule
Asda warns that text messages and emails claiming to offer its prizes are nothing to do with the supermarket and can be an attempt to capture personal details. The messages it lists include supermarket voucher giveaways, prize draws, reminders to collect a package and money-off promotions.
The FTC's rule for any unsolicited prize message is short: do not respond or click on any link, because a link can download malware onto the device. The same page says to look up the real company's contact information yourself, so the check runs through a channel the sender did not supply.
Package reminders sit in Asda's list beside giveaways. A prize is one lure among several.
Costco giveaway scam: the offers on its known-scams page are not from Costco
Costco Wholesale keeps a page of currently known scams, and it says the fraudulent email, text and post offers shown there are not from Costco. The page advises people not to visit any links provided in messages such as these and not to give the sender any personal information.
A giveaway that uses Costco's name is checked against that page and against the company's own contact information, never against the message that arrived. Where the page does not list an offer, it does not clear it either: it shows which offers are known scams, not which are genuine.
Dream Giveaway: what its official rules state about payment and residence
Dream Giveaway Garage's official rules state that no payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win a Dream Giveaway drawing, and that the drawing is open only to legal residents of the U.S. and Canada, except Quebec, and to residents of other countries and U.S. territories and possessions where permitted by law.
Those are the official rules' own claims. Nothing quoted here shows whether any Dream Giveaway drawing paid out a winner, so the FTC's checks and California's test still apply to any message that mentions Dream Giveaway.
Legal or not: California's line and Great Britain's free-route rule
California's attorney general says it is illegal to require you to spend money to enter a sweepstakes or to increase your odds of winning one. That line is about sweepstakes in California, and it lines up with the FTC's treatment of a demand for payment as a scam sign.
Great Britain's Gambling Commission describes a different case, a draw that does charge to take part: there, people can choose to take part without paying. The two lines are separate rules from separate regulators, and neither vouches for any one giveaway.
| Sign or message | Who issued the warning | What the warning says |
|---|---|---|
| A fee to get the prize | Federal Trade Commission | Having to pay to get a prize is a scam. |
| Payment to improve the odds | Federal Trade Commission | Having to pay to increase your odds of winning is a scam. |
| A check plus a request for money back | Federal Trade Commission | Scammers send a check and ask you to send some of the money back. |
| A link in a prize message | Federal Trade Commission | Do not respond or click; a link can download malware onto the device. |
| A hamper post in Cadbury's name | Cadbury, quoted by Snopes | The post was not generated by Cadbury, and people are urged not to interact with it or share personal information. |
| An offer in Costco's name | Costco Wholesale | The fraudulent email, text and post offers on its known-scams page are not from Costco. |
| A text or email in Asda's name | Asda | The messages are nothing to do with Asda and include voucher giveaways and prize draws. |
The route
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Leave the message's links and replies alone
The FTC says not to respond to or click any link in an unsolicited prize message, because a link can download malware onto the device. Costco gives the same instruction for the fraudulent offers on its known-scams page: do not visit links in messages such as those.
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Find the real company's contact details yourself
The FTC's advice for an uncertain prize notice is to look up the real company's contact information yourself and contact the company directly. Typing the name with terms like review, complaint or scam, the FTC adds, is how to research it.
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Refuse any demand to pay or pay back
The FTC calls it a scam when you have to pay to get a prize or to increase your odds of winning, and when a check arrives with a request to send some of the money back. A fake giveaway that asks for any of the three has told the recipient what it is.
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Keep bank, card and Social Security details out
The FTC says there is absolutely no reason to give a bank account number, a credit card number or personal information such as a Social Security number to claim any prize. A message that asks for them is the warning sign.
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Treat pressure to act now as part of the pitch
The FTC lists pressure as a scam sign: scammers press you to act now to get a prize, or to hurry up and pay or give them information. A deadline that appears only in the message, and not in the organiser's published rules, is the pressure the FTC describes.
Questions from entrants
Are giveaways legit?
Yes. Gleam's guide says many giveaways are real, especially when reputable brands run them, and calls giveaways a legitimate marketing strategy. California's attorney general gives the test: legitimate sweepstakes are free and by chance.
Are fake giveaways illegal?
Yes, where they make entrants pay. California's attorney general says it is illegal to require you to spend money to enter or to increase your odds of winning a sweepstakes, and the FTC says having to pay to get a prize is a scam.
Is The Giveaway Guys legit?
Nothing published by the FTC, California's attorney general or the brands covered here names The Giveaway Guys, so its name clears or flags nothing.
Is Giveaway Boat safe?
No bot listing can settle that. Top.gg lists Giveaway Boat as an advanced Discord giveaway bot, and GitHub verified that its organisation controls its domain, but a bot is not the organiser of every giveaway run through it.
Is the Cadbury free hamper giveaway real?
No. Cadbury's statement, quoted by Snopes, says a circulating social media post offering a hamper of free Cadbury products was not generated by the company, and it urges people not to interact with the post or share personal information.
Are Costco giveaway offers by email or text from Costco?
No, not the ones on Costco's known-scams page. Costco says the fraudulent email, text and post offers it lists are not from Costco Wholesale, and it advises people not to visit links in such messages or give the sender personal information.
Logbook of sources
- consumer.ftc.gov. consumer.ftc.gov/articles/fake-prize-sweepstakes-and-lottery-scams.
- consumer.ftc.gov. consumer.ftc.gov/articles/fake-prize-sweepstakes-and-lottery-scams.
- snopes.com. snopes.com/fact-check/cadbury-free-chocolate-hampers/.
- customerservice.costco.com. customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9770/~/currently-known-scams.
- corporate.asda.com. corporate.asda.com/article/dont-be-taken-in-by-scam-text-messages-claiming-to-offer-asda-prizes.
This page cannot confirm that any particular giveaway, site or message is genuine, and it does not vouch for any organiser. A giveaway awards prizes by chance, so even a legit one is a chance and nothing more, and each organiser's own rules decide eligibility, the draw and how winners are told.
A prize contest that counts votes or likes on a social platform sits under two sets of rules. Meta prohibits selling, buying or exchanging engagement such as likes and shares, and Reddit bans accounts, temporarily or permanently, for vote manipulation. Organisers add their own penalties: BET's sweepstakes rules disqualified attempts to cast votes that were exchanged, bought or received by one person from multiple accounts.
Organisers describe an ordinary voter in their rules. Disney's Mousequerade sweepstakes let each entrant vote once and voided votes above that limit from the same person, email address or household, and the BBC Radio 1 Dance Awards treated votes outside the announced hours as invalid. Ordinary participation therefore comes from separate people inside the period; this describes what organisers count and is not a way past what they check.
In the United States, the FTC says real sweepstakes are free and decided by chance, and calls it illegal to ask you to pay or buy something to enter or to increase your odds of winning. That is why no order for votes is taken for a sweepstakes, giveaway or raffle. A contest decided by public vote is a different kind of thing, and whether paying for votes in one is lawful where you live is a question for a lawyer. Political ballots are refused too.
Votes ordered for a poll or contest that never appear in its count are refunded once the organiser's voting has closed. Timing is the organiser's call: National Geographic did not count likes, shares or other activity before its voting period began, and Sports & Social may end text voting early. A result, a disqualification or a voided vote stays with the organiser.