Has anyone heard about this before?

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firefly30

New member
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So, I guess I've been a little bit paranoid that I'm being disqualified - it's just that when I was doing this in 2011, I was winning a lot, and now I'm not. I know it could certainly just be a matter of luck, but I can't help but wonder if something else is going on. In 2011, I bookmarked my favorite contests and I would click "open all tabs" and enter them all. This time around, I've instead used contest sites and click through them that way.

I stumbled upon this article today about roboform and I saw this comment. It concerns me that it says that as a programmer, her job was to remove suspicious entries and that included when a large number of entries came from the same URL.

Wouldn't that mean that if all of us were clicking from the same url in order to enter that we would be disqualified?

I'm wondering if I should go back to my old method.

The post is in a screen shot attached. And here it is copy/pasted.:


Christine DeGraff March 23, 2013 at 5:52 pm - Reply
Hi Carolyn,

I worked for several years at a company as a programmer and developed sweepstakes for very large clients including Maybelline, Kodak, etc. Prior to the drawings, I would “scrub” the database to remove duplicate entries and entries that did not follow the rules. If I noticed a large number of entries coming from the same referring URL or IP address, I would check it, and if it was a “RoboForm” type site, I would remove their entries prior to the drawing. I am sure that many smaller sweepstakes do not check for this, but that was my experience and I wanted to share that with your readers.

Thanks,
Christine DeGraff
Websketching Web Design
A Web Designer’s Blog
 
Never heard of that, but it is interesting. Thanks for sharing the information, firefly30.

Many SA members win consistently, big, small and grand prizes using Roboform and other form fillers, which is not the same thing as a sweeps-entering service...and SA is a sweeps-listing site which just gives you the list and links to the sweeps, but you actually select and enter them yourself. (It is a little confusing but SA is a listing site with links to sweeps, Roboform (for example) is a form filler, and neither one enters for you. Too bad we don't have an example of "a large number of entries coming from the same referring URL or IP address" to further distinguish and clarify.)

Bookmarking is an interesting way to try and see if you win more that way, and so is entering manually (without a form filler), but you wouldn't really be able to determine if that was why you won - without setting up a scientific experiment with a control group etc. - and even that wouldn't give a definitive answer because winners are selected randomly, plus you wouldn't know if the sweeps you entered were the ones which removed entries prior to the drawing...so many variables you can't control!

Have you read, "Not winning anything? Tips on why?" - every once in a while I read it again. Here's a link:

NOT WINNING ANYTHING? Tips on WHY:
 
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It sounds to me like there is a misunderstanding about what Roboform does. What exactly is a "RoboForm type site" to her?? That doesn't make any sense. Robo only fills the form...millions of people use similar programs to be more efficient, and not just in sweepstakes. Heck, Chrome itself has an autofill feature.

I HAVE heard that some sponsors will delete any entry that comes from a sweepstakes site though. I BELIEVE Festool is one of them. Sometimes they mention it in the rules.

For a 1X entry, if I am on a site I will enter through that link from the site. If it's a daily I will let my first entry be through that site and then it gets bookmarked into my personal list.

People win every single day from sites like SA....I wouldn't worry too much about it. Like arrtup3 said, how would you really know anyhow?
 
Good point, openmind101. Using a form filler (Roboform or any autofill feature) would not be reflected in your URL or IP address.
 
I'm definitely less concerned about the autofill and more concerned about the referring URL. Back in 2011 when I was bookmarking (and using autofill) I won so much: a bike, a laptop, a crystal heart, a chaise lounge chair, and tons of other smaller prizes. I was entering 150 a day, give or take. I'm doing the same thing this year but the biggest prize I've won are ear buds from Black & Mild and I have yet to win anything that wasn't an instant win.

It makes sense to me that they would disqualify people who are coming from sweepstakes sites out of concern that the entries aren't real.

As far as autofill goes, some sites will make an invisible box hoping that autofill mistakenly fills it so that they're aware of whether or not you're using it. That being said, I don't think they disqualify autofill for the most part - when you think about it, there are people who are disabled or have hand issues and cannot manually type, and it wouldn't be fair to disqualify them for using an aid.

Like you said arrtup3, there are so many variables and no possible way of knowing. It would take so much time to read the individual set of official rules for every contest, but since there are some that eliminate entries that come from the same url, I'm probably just going to bookmark from now on. In many ways, I like doing it that way better anyway. Not going to stop using autofill though because it was just be far too time-consuming.
 
I'm definitely less concerned about the autofill and more concerned about the referring URL. Back in 2011 when I was bookmarking (and using autofill) I won so much: a bike, a laptop, a crystal heart, a chaise lounge chair, and tons of other smaller prizes. I was entering 150 a day, give or take. I'm doing the same thing this year but the biggest prize I've won are ear buds from Black & Mild and I have yet to win anything that wasn't an instant win.

It makes sense to me that they would disqualify people who are coming from sweepstakes sites out of concern that the entries aren't real.

As far as autofill goes, some sites will make an invisible box hoping that autofill mistakenly fills it so that they're aware of whether or not you're using it. That being said, I don't think they disqualify autofill for the most part - when you think about it, there are people who are disabled or have hand issues and cannot manually type, and it wouldn't be fair to disqualify them for using an aid.

Like you said arrtup3, there are so many variables and no possible way of knowing. It would take so much time to read the individual set of official rules for every contest, but since there are some that eliminate entries that come from the same url, I'm probably just going to bookmark from now on. In many ways, I like doing it that way better anyway. Not going to stop using autofill though because it was just be far too time-consuming.
 
I wonder if you still wanted to use a sweepstakes page to enter your contest, if you could just copy the url, paste it and refresh the page so that you were no longer linked to the referring url?
 
I just wish they wouldn't discriminate against us just because we use a sweepstakes site or because it's our hobby. I bet if it weren't for us, the whole idea of having a sweepstakes as a marketing tool would be a lot less appealing.

We buy real items and shop real stores like everyone else. On top of that, we unabashedly share and make their content go viral, driving traffic and potentially sales, which is why they are having the sweepstakes in the first place.

Sweepers are a valuable resource. Scrubbing the database of legitimate entries from a sweepstakes site makes it a heck of a lot less 'random'.

Sorry for the rant; I feel strongly about this :/ I don't think it's fair.
 
I just wish they wouldn't discriminate against us just because we use a sweepstakes site or because it's our hobby. I bet if it weren't for us, the whole idea of having a sweepstakes as a marketing tool would be a lot less appealing.

We buy real items and shop real stores like everyone else. On top of that, we unabashedly share and make their content go viral, driving traffic and potentially sales, which is why they are having the sweepstakes in the first place.

Sweepers are a valuable resource. Scrubbing the database of legitimate entries from a sweepstakes site makes it a heck of a lot less 'random'.

Sorry for the rant; I feel strongly about this :/ I don't think it's fair.
 
openmind101 - It's not us rule following, product using, word of mouth and social media sharing sweepers that they dislike, but we get the heat for the "freebie chasers" that use bots, multiple email addys, and share cheats

openmind101 said:
I just wish they wouldn't discriminate against us just because we use a sweepstakes site or because it's our hobby. I bet if it weren't for us, the whole idea of having a sweepstakes as a marketing tool would be a lot less appealing.

We buy real items and shop real stores like everyone else. On top of that, we unabashedly share and make their content go viral, driving traffic and potentially sales, which is why they are having the sweepstakes in the first place.

Sweepers are a valuable resource. Scrubbing the database of legitimate entries from a sweepstakes site makes it a heck of a lot less 'random'.

Sorry for the rant; I feel strongly about this :/ I don't think it's fair.
Click to expand...
 
It really frustrates me too. It shouldn't matter... we entered fairly, and there's no reason we should be disqualified regardless of how we came across the contest or what link we clicked on.
 
I have read about invisible check boxes/fields on entry forms to disqualify Roboform type entries, and was wondering if anyone has actually found any companies using these? I don't believe most companies have a problem with form filler type programs, but do want to eliminate 'sweepstakes entry services' that automatically enter for someone with no actual interaction. I have seen a few (very few) sweepstakes that state that the entry must be hand typed. I have seen a few that state they disqualify anyone entering from a sweepstakes websites and wonder how many actually do this, stated in the rules or not.

I have always used Roboform, and don't know if it has ever cost me a win, but do feel that I have been successful at winning many nice prizes with Roboform.

1st time I enter I always use drop-down, C&P, and/or typing to fill the fields THEN I save it to robo

OR, I save it to robo THEN look at the passcard to see if fields other than requested are filled in & I delete those fields & save

And yes, it *will* fill all fields on page, whether you see them/need to fill them or not!
 
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l321 - 1st time I enter I always use drop-down, C&P, and/or typing to fill the fields THEN I save it to robo

OR, I save it to robo THEN look at the passcard to see if fields other than requested are filled in & I delete those fields & save

And yes, it *will* fill all fields on page, whether you see them/need to fill them or not!


l321 said:
I have read about invisible check boxes/fields on entry forms to disqualify Roboform type entries, and was wondering if anyone has actually found any companies using these? I don't believe most companies have a problem with form filler type programs, but do want to eliminate 'sweepstakes entry services' that automatically enter for someone with no actual interaction. I have seen a few (very few) sweepstakes that state that the entry must be hand typed. I have seen a few that state they disqualify anyone entering from a sweepstakes website and wonder how many actually do this, stated in the rules or not.

I have always used Roboform, and don't know if it has ever cost me a win, but do feel that I have been successful at winning many nice prizes with Roboform.

1st time I enter I always use drop-down, C&P, and/or typing to fill the fields THEN I save it to robo

OR, I save it to robo THEN look at the passcard to see if fields other than requested are filled in & I delete those fields & save

And yes, it *will* fill all fields on page, whether you see them/need to fill them or not!
Click to expand...
 
Amy, how often do you find fields in the passcards that you have to delete?
 
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