Beware of promises of riches from abroad

15 October 2004

It's every person's wish come true. You receive a mailing informing that you have won a large amount of money. Ideas of what you can do with it, immediately pop into your head. Holidays, cars, home improvements "Then you get to the bottom of your "winning notification letter" and you're asked to send off a fee to claim your winnings. And to boot, you find out that you're not, as you had initially believed the winner of the top prize, instead, you just have the right to enter a prize draw.

Does this scenario sound familiar? To hundreds, perhaps, thousands of you, it probably does. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which is the body responsible for supervising the content of mailings (as well as other non-broadcast advertising), says that it receives hundreds of complaints a year about prize draw mailings; last year 7% of all the complaints that the ASA received (913 out of a total of 13,959) were from people who had been misled by mailings that they believed told them they had won thousands of pounds.

Two of the biggest culprits for sending out problematic prize draw mailings in the UK over the last year or so have been Friedrich Mueller and TV Direct Distribution, both of which are based overseas. Despite efforts by the ASA, in conjunction with its European counterparts and Royal Mail, to stop these companies from sending out misleading information, the complaints about their mailings have continued to pour in. The ASA has, therefore, decided to impose its ultimate sanction upon these companies and has asked the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to consider taking action against the companies under the Control of Misleading Advertising Regulations. Friedrich Mueller and TV Direct Distribution now run the risk of prosecution, which could result in a hefty fine.

Friedrich Mueller and TV Direct Distribution are operators in one of the most difficult areas that the ASA polices - overseas mailings. It is often the case that the most problematic mailings that the ASA sees originate from abroad and it is much harder for the UK regulatory bodies to stop the distribution of mailings that originate from outside of the UK. The ASA works with Royal Mail and the OFT to try to stop these mailings in the UK. When the ASA encounters an advertiser who refuses to withdraw a problematic mailing, it asks Royal Mail to assist it in getting the mailing stopped. As an ultimate action, the ASA refers problematic advertisers to the OFT who can then take action in the courts.

The ASA also works with its European equivalents, through an organisation called the European Advertising Standards Alliance, to stop misleading mailings being sent from their country of origin.

However, the regulators need you to help them in their quest to stop these mailings. What can you do? Well, the next time that a letter arrives through your door promising you riches for a small "administration fee", follow the ASA's advice and bin it.