What is Publishers Clearing House PCH?

Table Of Content

• Media Contacts
• Download PCHApps for Mobile Entries
• What is the difference between a Prize Number and a Giveaway Number?
• Post navigation
• FTC Takes Action Against Publishers Clearing House for Misleading Consumers About Sweepstakes Entries
• What’s the difference between an entry deadline and a giveaway ending date?

I have been buying and dealing with PCH for more than 20 years. "As part of a settlement, PCH agreed to pay $18.5 million, among other things." A prize number is a 12-digit number assigned to an entrant and a prize promotion. A giveaway number identifies the prize promotional pool into which entries will be submitted. Throughout the life of a giveaway, you may submit many entries, and each one of them will have a new, unique prize number. But, the giveaway itself will always have the same number, because the number functions as its name.

Media Contacts

We keep track of what prizes were offered in each different promotion. When a winner is selected, we will offer the prize promoted to the winning entry, as set forth in the Official Rules. Our collection of PCHgames is without a doubt the most diverse way to score tokens and collect additional entries into PCH sweepstakes. With PCHgames, you can play mahjongg, solitaire, word games, puzzles, pinball, and more to score tokens and prizes.

Download PCHApps for Mobile Entries

While this is still true of Publishers Clearing House today, over the years, the company has grown into a world-famous brand that offers a multitude of products, contests, and entertainment services. Heading over to our main website at PCH.com, you can enter to win the PCH sweepstakes SuperPrize and our various other sweepstakes. While you’re there, you can access many of the other ways to gain additional online sweepstakes entries, such as playing the PCHLotto. At PCH giveaways are promotions that award prizes based on chance to entrants. The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition and protect and educate consumers.

What is the difference between a Prize Number and a Giveaway Number?

I finally stopped dealing with them all together.They are SCAMMERS. Remember, every day and every place you play with PCH means MORE WAYS TO WIN, so don’t miss out on a single opportunity — enter PCH sweepstakes today. $10,000” McKinley Harris from Winston-Salem exclaimed in 2018. I have received numerous calls/messages from scammers acting as PCH to tell me I won the Grand Prize. They are foreigners and I never speak to them but I know they can be very convincing until they ask you to send "gift cards." It's distressing to hear PCH themselves have been deceiving people.

Or that doing so would improve their chances of winning a prize. Spinning PCHSlots gives you all the fun of playing Las Vegas-style casino games without any of the risk. Playing PCHSlots is completely free and lets you bank daily prize entries for our online sweepstakes and tokens that can be redeemed for additional entries and other great prizes. Skill contests are different from sweepstakes offers. In a skill contest, the winner is determined by skill — not chance — and an entry fee or purchase may be required.

FTC Takes Action Against Publishers Clearing House for Misleading Consumers About Sweepstakes Entries

We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect. According to the complaint, the deception starts from the company’s homepage, where consumers complete an “Official Entry Form” with a large button with phrasing like “WIN IT! ” This form, however, does not enter them in the sweepstakes. We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above.

Opportunity knocks on Warren couple’s door to the tune of $1 million - WKBN.com

Opportunity knocks on Warren couple’s door to the tune of $1 million.

Posted: Thu, 29 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

“I`m calling to let you know that you are the second prize winner in our big sweepstakes for $2.5 million,” Guthrie said. When the caller said all that, Guthrie started taking notes. The person on the phone gave her a badge number and told her to go to the nearest Walmart or Walgreens to prove her identity through money gram. As was mentioned a moment ago, Publishers Clearing House doesn’t just deal in magazine subscriptions but has expanded into a plethora of different product categories for our fans to enjoy. The expansion into these different areas began in 1967 when PCH launched its first sweepstakes as a means to attract attention to different magazine subscriptions.

What’s the difference between an entry deadline and a giveaway ending date?

The FTC will never demand money, make threats, tell you to transfer money, or promise you a prize. Learn more about consumer topics at consumer.ftc.gov, or report fraud, scams, and bad business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Follow the FTC on social media, read consumer alerts and the business blog, and sign up to get the latest FTC news and alerts. At the beginning of a giveaway, we plan the amount of prizes and their value. Throughout the life of the giveaway, we may show different types of prizes that could be purchased by or funded by the dollar amount being offered. For example, a giveaway offering a $20,000 prize could be promoted as $20,000 Cash or a New Pick Up Truck ($19,999 MSRP).

‘Making dreams come true;’ Local woman wins over $40K from Publishers Clearing House - WHIO

‘Making dreams come true;’ Local woman wins over $40K from Publishers Clearing House.

Posted: Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

For example, in a skill contest you may write a winning jingle, solve a puzzle, or answer a question correctly. Your skill or knowledge is what wins the contest, not chance. It is important to research how the contest works, what the prizes are, and what the fees are before paying anything to participate in a Skill Contest. To give you a quick overview of Publishers Clearing House and our history, the company was founded in 1953 by the Mertz family as a direct marketing magazine subscription organization.

They say it over and over buying will not increase chances of winning. Today, Publishers Clearing House is best known as a “sweepstakes company,” offering our friends and fans a variety of free-to-play, chance-to-win games, contests, sweepstakes and more, all of which span dozens of apps and digital properties. The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy.

It states clearly no purchase necessary to win and a purchase will not increase your chance of winning. People don't read any print, not just fine print and of course it's everyones fault but their own. They have never added anything to my cart either. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments.

PCH back in 1980 to 2023 I join PCH and paid for products from the PCH catalog and never wond anything.

Lotteries are illegal except when conducted by states and certain exempt charitable organizations. If you believe you have received a solicitation in the guise of a sweepstakes which is an illegal lottery (requiring you to pay to enter), you should contact your local Post Office or consumer protection office. The FTC charges that PCH used dark patterns—manipulative phrasing and website design—to  convince consumers that they needed to buy a product of some kind to enter the company’s sweepstakes or increase their chances of winning.

The entry deadline is the date by which the prize number for an entry is due. Most prize promotions last for 4-8 weeks and have an entry deadline within that timeframe. The giveaway end date is the last day when any entry will be accepted for the giveaway before it closes for the final drawing. Premiums are free gifts that companies make available to all recipients who respond according to the company’s instructions — for example, a travel bag received with a new magazine subscription. When everyone who responds to the offer receives the same gift item, without any element of chance, the offer is considered a Premium, not a sweepstakes.

Just check out all of the 2021 PCH winners on our YouTube channel. Then, in 1985, our company began to expand its suite of product offerings into a diverse set of categories including collectibles, household appliances, entertainment devices and so much more. This decision has helped to shape Publishers Clearing House into what it is today. While our loyal friends, fans, and winners all know that PCH is very real and quite legitimate, we want to take this opportunity to address those with these questions and discuss the long and storied history of Publishers Clearing House.

These publications focus on particular topics.[47] Wide Open Spaces is about outdoors lifestyle, the Editorial Director of the publication is Rachael Schultz, formerly of Insider and Hearst Communications. Wide Open Country focuses on country music, and is based in Nashville. Finally, their sports publication FanBuzz previously belonged to Cox Media Group. When can we expect to see a refund of our money we spent over the years??