Hello, I was wondering if there is anything that you can do to a person or a site that runs a contest and then when it is over they dont like how things went so they close the site down. I am not sure if there is much you can do but I just wanted to check becasue something like this happened very recently. The site opened, ran a contest and then extended it and then when it was over the owner said he would have winners in a few days and then a week later he said in a few more days and then he just never posted for a few weeks so activity died out and the site now just says "Closed due to lack of interest.". I have tried contacting the owner of the site several times in several different forms with no success. I know he is getting my messages he is just not replying. I would like to hear what you think about this. Thanks, Evan
It is obvious that you cannot trust anyone and anything on the net these days. Running a bogus contest with a good prize would be an excellent way to collect email addresses and other information for use by phishing gangs and other groups. There would never be any intent to award a prize. The intent is only to collect information. Another variation would be a site crammed with PPC ads, which uses the bogus contest with great prizes to attract traffic in hopes they will click out through the PPC ad links. I would further suspect the whois name and mailing address will be fake. The domain could have been registered with a stolen credit card and identity. This makes it clear it is very dangerous to provide any kind of personal data to a website which you do not trust. Never forget, if something looks too good to be true . . . it probably is.
Personally, I wouldn't participate in any online contest unless the site was: 1. Established for a long time and with a good reputation. 2. The site contained a Privacy or Disclosure Policy stating clearly that no email addresses will be collected and resold, I.P. recorded, etc. Unless you lost $$$, I would simply move on and chalk it all up to experience.
Well the thing is the guy who did it is an active member of this forum and most all of the webmaster forums. It was a forum contest that he was running for a new site of his.
Unfortunately, DP has its share of shady members. I think it is repulsive for anyone to start something only to pull out later without explanation.