| | Prize draw firm bankrupted as thousands successfully cash "pretend" cheques
16 Jun 2003 by Ian Vince
A direct mail prize draw organiser faces financial ruin tonight after promotional material designed to look like a cheque turned out to be "too realistic", it has emerged.
The cheques, each made out for one million dollars, were so authentic many banks had to draft in extra workers not only to man the counters, but also to deliver the bonus prizes of new cars, tickets for exotic holidays or home cinema equipment.
"I guess I'm a lucky, lucky person after all," said one prize recipient, "and when they gave me seven lucky numbers instead of one and printed my name and address on a watermarked Certificate of Guaranteed Possibility, I knew that I had won."
Bank Manager Patricia Sprouts agrees. "We are accepting the cheques and crediting them to our customers' accounts, however we have no stocks of SUVs or holidays, so we are finding it hard to honour the whole amount across the counter. As far as we are concerned, it says "Pay Mrs So-and-so" across the top, so that's what we are doing."
But one customer was disappointed. "I really wanted to collect the entire set of replica Weapons of Mass Destruction crafted from finest Bolivian hardboard and presented on a Mahoganesque stand. I was one of only 30,000 people in my city to be offered one and now the company turns around and says its going to be broke and won't be able to give me my money back. That sucks."
A prize draw spokesdatabase said: "How would you, {data=1} Name of publication goes here{/data} of {data=2} Name of country goes here{/data} like to have seven, that's right, seven!! chances to win a statement from our company? Just think, that could be you {data=1} Name of publication goes here{/data} collecting your Pullitzer next year and you could be the envy of all your neighbours {data=3} Name of all your neighbours goes here{/data} in {data=2} Name of country goes here{/data}. Don't delay, request your press pack today".
Have you seen this?
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