Making a Top 10 list is usually something to be proud of, unless
perhaps if the list was created by David Letterman's writers. But being
included on the Federal Trade Commission's List of Consumer
Complaints is certainly no honor – especially if you make
the Top 10 year after year.
Each year the FTC issues a report that categorizes the
thousands of complaints it received from consumers in the previous
year. The "promotions for free prizes, sweepstakes and
lotteries" category is No. 3 on this year's list, beating
out 27 other types of complaints. In fact, the sweepstakes category
been ranked in the Top 10 since the list was created in 1999.
The FTC defines this category rather broadly as "promotions
for 'free' prizes for a fee; foreign lotteries; and
sweepstakes offered through the phone, fax, email or mail;
etc." Nevertheless, the Commission received 100,208 complaints
about sweepstakes and lotteries, which accounted for 6 percent of
the more than 1.8 million
