A 60-year-old housewife complained that her son had spent some $1,700 on an SMS contest, but had failed to win a single prize despite the huge number of entries submitted.
Mrs Zhong spoke to local Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News, complaining that her son had participated in local telco M1's "Die Die Must Win" SMS contest since September.
The contest was held for 12 weeks between 31 August and 22 November this year.
Participants had to SMS "WIN" to an M1 contest number, then answer various questions in order to earn points. The more points one has, the higher the chance of winning a prize in the daily draw or weekly draws.
Prizes were attractive - daily winners stand to walk away with a BenQ laptop, while weekly prize winners get to win a Honda car. In all, there were 84 laptops and 12 cars to be won. Each SMS costs $2.
As he was unaware of the contest's SMS charges, Mrs Zhong's song had participated very actively in the contest. He only stopped when he learned from a friend that there were fees for every entry he sent.
By then, Mrs Zhong told Shin Min, her son had already sent 909 entries, racking up a total of $1699.83 in mobile phone bills
Despite the large amount of money "invested" in the contest, Mrs Zhong said that her son had failed to win a single prize in both the daily and weekly draws.
An M1 spokesman said that participants in its SMS contest earn points for every question answered correctly. Points are then accumulated and the participant who has the most points at the end of the day wins the BenQ laptop.
The participant who has the most points at the end of each week wins the Honda, but winners of the daily BenQ laptops too, stand a chance at getting the car.
