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My Theory: Winners24.com Is A Scam
By andrew | November 7, 2008
(9 votes, average: 4.44 out of 5)
Loading ...I was told about a site (winners24.com) by a buddy of mine. He heard an advertisement for them on 92.3 KRock.
After toying around with the site for awhile, I have come to the conclusion that it is a scam.
First, let me give you the premise of the site. They sell items, most of them are worth several hundred dollars or more. The price they sell them for starts at $0.00 and has a count down timer (the timer generally starts at 15 or 30 seconds). Once the item becomes “active” you bid for the right to be the one person to buy it. Each bid costs you $1 and raises the price of the item by $0.01. A new bid resets the timer at its original value and it begins to count down again. If you are the last person to bid on the item when the timer reaches zero, you can buy the item at its final price.
On the cover it seems very fun. Many people risking a small amount of money with one of them ultimately getting the prize. The strategy is very straight forward, be willing to spend the most bidding to win.
I believe this site to be a scam for several reasons:
1. I have consistently observed a small core group of users, bidding vigorously on every auction. If there are 4 simultaneous auctions running, they will be sporadically bidding on all 4 of them. With such a short time span to rest within each auction, it’s unreasonable to think that a person can be watching 3-4 simultaneous auctions at the same time. Also, with each bid costing $1, they are spending a tremendous amount of money on novelty items.
2. The aforementioned core group all hail from major US cities. Easy to come up with when you trying to create profile information for random bots that will bid up your items.
3. It is not uncommon to see one of these members bid over 50 times for an item that retails for $25 (these items are bidding credits which we’ll get to later). Most reasonable people will know when to cut their losses and call it quits. The “25 bids” is generally the cheapest item at $25, so this is where the incongruity really stands out. When bidding on a $1600 TV, excessive amounts of bidding can be expected since you will save in the long run.
4. More recently, I have observed a rapid succession of bids within one second. Going from one user to the next then back to the first. Since this is all within one second, I’ll mention that the oldest is at the bottom.
Bidding this fast is impossible
In this example you see that Suzy21 had the last bid in, then Kayla followed her, then Elizabeth bid twice, followed by Lopez19. Within the same second, somehow Suzy21 got wind of this and bid again, only to get beaten by Penelope then Kayla. Suzy21, still within one seconds time, became enraged at this and threw in another bid. We see, though, that Elizabeth had the last laugh. This auction continued on in this manner for several more minutes with masses of bids coming in at the same time. So 12:48:09 was an avalanche of bids, then nothing, then 5-10 seconds later, a second avalanche of bids. It is almost as if all these women are somehow connected… probably running on the same server.
5. The items that are won (usually by one of the core group) usually end up for sale again the next day or the same day. I suppose it is possible that they buy certain items in bulk to save money. I mean, who could possibly pass up a deal on a whole bushel of bright pink iPod nano’s, or a nice stack of MacBook Air laptops? More likely, the items are not going out to anybody and they just keep listing them incase they need to actually ship one out at one point. That or they have zero stock. I guess that helps with their pledge of free shipping anywhere in the world on any item.
6. There is a special type of item where you bid to buy a certain number of bids that get credited to your account. These are a genius money making idea. Have people pay more money to bid less money. The cost is distributed amongst all bidders, so that in the end, one person ends up saving a few bucks. To enhance the profit potential even more, have some of your bots bid up the price! Brilliant!
That is my reasoning as to why I believe Winners24.com is a scam.
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November 7th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
I am a regular guy who is very averse of such sites and for all that we know it could be a scam too but think like a business.. they are still profiting by paying full price for auction item. eg: if the final bid price for 32 GB Ipod is $499 and the total bid price is $9.95, winners.com has actually pocketed $995 in bids and pay only $499 for new Ipod. I totally agree with you that its a BRILLIANT idea.
November 10th, 2008 at 06:38 pm
I checked out the site and you bring up some good points. Since the site just started (no earlier than August) I don’t think they have the visitors to sustain the type of intensive bidding thats needed. So I agree I think the users aren’t real. In addition, they have a low alexa ranking.
However, I think its a good idea. However, to spend $1 to have a chance a winning a $200 I don’t see it becoming sometime huge. They will need to change their business model in order to capture the traffic needed and exactly grow.
May 12th, 2009 at 03:34 pm
It’s not a scam, its just like swoopo.com, gobid.com, etc. It’s a bid lottery, you buy the lottery bids at a buck a piece which gives you the right to purchase at your bid price if you win. Just like others have said, they can sell a $100 item for $5 because they made $500 on the lottery bids. Unlike swoopo.com, at least this site gives you 1 free bid everyday.
May 21st, 2009 at 09:30 am
I do have to side on the fact that this is a scam website. Yes I do see the point where they can make plenty of money selling a ipod for 6.38 which equals $638 plus $6.38 minus the ipods cost of about $325 and shipping and handling. It would be a great idea if they did do things honestly but in the case of winners24.com they have something fishy happening there. I wasted $100 on an ipod which sold the day prior for $.42 and then when I try to bid less then 24 hours later on the same item it goes for $6.38. they must has bots doing the bidding to raise the price. I did check the alexa ranking and they do not drive traffic to support this activity yet. I would like to assume that they are just doing this until they hit some magic number of users but think in the long run it will just go down as a scam. Maybe we should have Chris Hansen do a story about the site on Dateline NBC
May 29th, 2009 at 03:07 pm
anyone have any current experience with this website? i just found the website yesterday after hearing a advertisement over my local sports radio station… any insight on whether its legit or not?
May 30th, 2009 at 03:35 am
It’s not legit. I tried it… got scammed. Do yourself a favor and stay away from temptation.
June 17th, 2009 at 03:06 pm
The site is 100% legit. It is hard to time and win but it is legit. The people bidding on several auctions at the same time are using the autobid feature that bids on your behalf. I know people personally that have won auctions on this site and several others like it. It is gambling so don’t get carried away but it is real. There is another site that if you google winners24.com it comes up and says something like “better than winners24″ that only costs $0.49 instead of $1.00 per bid and has the same products.
August 6th, 2009 at 02:45 pm
This website is a scam. I completely agree with Andrew. I first found it several months ago and rather then pay for bids I’ve been logging on everyday for one free bid. Sure enough, I amassed over 100 free bids and played my hand last night on a $250 item. Throwing a $100 at a $250 item I figured that I had a pretty good chance, but sure enough, I didn’t. Every time I would come within winning the auction, the same person would reactive the auction. This same person I first noticed when I found the website. They stood out because they were bidding on every item in great excess. So, long story short, don’t waste your time. Many of the “bidders” are inside people boosting the price up, and frankly this website has no intention of letting you win. Avoid at all costs.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:20 am
So i herd about winners24 on kiis.fm and i decided to try it out. I’ve been on it for three days now and have only spent 15 buying bids and 4 bucks on winning more bids. the way to do it is to buy the cheapest bid pack and stretch it out as far as possiable. for example, i bought the $15 pack and so far i have won 3 auctions of bids, which came out to $100 worth of bids. All together i have only spent about 23 bucks on this site, and now im going to wait till something i really want goes up so that i can bid my little head off and eventually only have to pay the winning price.
If u do try any of these auction sites out BE SMART WITH YOUR MONEY! I saw someone place $146 worth of bids on an ipod and won it for $4.60, all together this person only saved $84 on it! in my opinion, they totally scamed themselves!
August 19th, 2009 at 10:54 am
I agree it is a scam but smart one. Items usually sell for alot less unless an honest user is bidding and thats why there is no trend. How can they sell a 4000 dollar bike for 1.50? The bidding is quite fishy too, notice how the last bids are handeled. When I am the last bidder, it seems to take a while waiting for someone else to bid ( i guess they go for a piss once in a while). I would like to hear from real people who won bids on winners24. Smart SCAM though.
August 20th, 2009 at 12:23 am
I wouldnt’ say it’s a scam… but it sure doesn’t seem like an honest site.
Hell, even in the feedback page, they are type the goddamn same way.
If things are too good to be true, there’s a reason.
August 25th, 2009 at 02:51 pm
i wanted to get a camcorder from there, mah mama thinks its a scam also, she finks der gunna send it and it wun have anything in it. is it a good idea to try it??
August 26th, 2009 at 07:26 pm
Winners24 is a complete scam site.If you check the ended auctions page every single winner of actual merchandise is from a major city which is impossible.They may let a legit bidder win a package of bids but never real merchandise.I have seen several of their shill bidders place thousands of bids on a daily basis while never winning anything.AVOID THIS SCAMSITE AND ZOOZLE.COM IS EVEN WORSE.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
This is not a scam!! I have won several items from the site and have been very happy with it. Sure it’s all luck but with a little bit of study and luck it can be won. If you’ve tried it and not won … well that’s the nature of the site. use the autobid and set your limit on what you want to bid. Remeber your bidding for a chance to win not on the product.Like others have said it’s a lottery. Are you going to say that the state lottery is a scam? It’s the same thing only on a web site. Sure they make money but’s that is the business they are in to make money. If it’s not for you great, don’t play, but just don’t make uneducated accusations of being a scam
August 28th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
It’s not like a lottery at all.
August 28th, 2009 at 02:19 pm
DON’T BELIEVE ANYONE WHO SAYS THESE SITES ARE LEGIT OR THAT THEY HAVE WON AUCTIONS.BEFORE YOU JOIN ANY OF THESE SCAM SITES JUST SIT BACK AND WATCH THE AUCTIONS FOR A COUPLE DAYS.THE SAME SHILL BIDDERS PLACE THOUSANDS OF BIDS EVERY DAY AND WOULD SUFFER HUGE LOSSES IF THEY WERE REAL BIDDERS.I HAVE SEEN A SINGLE BIDDER PLACE THOUSANDS OF BIDS WITH THE AUTO BID SYSTEM TO WIN AN ITEM WORTH $200.AVOID WINNERS24 ,ZOZZLE AND THE REST OF THESE SCAMMERS.
August 29th, 2009 at 07:34 pm
fucking scam…..i gonna tell u what……if i am the owner of Winner24 i will create many memberships under many different bidder’s name with unlimited account. I will set autobidder with any single items. Who can win ?…….and the way i am doing is legal….i will get more and more money from many stupid people who think it is true, even i have been advertising it on radio or tv. Dont be stupid any more!….anyways i got a great idea from the website to be a rich man.
Thanks
September 2nd, 2009 at 08:25 pm
I joined because I like auction sites. I bought about 20$ of bids and figured I’d spend it and let that be it. I actually won a bid on a bran new Apple all in one new computers. I was thrilled and won it for 7 dollars! But it didnt take long to smell a rat and be so freakin pissed! Two days later I received an email saying that they experienced technical difficulties on their server and therefore I was “really” outbid by another person. Son of a B#%#! SO naturally I said, ” I want my money back!!!” They even emailed me first to say they would issue a credit of the 10$ total (How they came up with 3 dollars more from the winning bid I dont know, but was not arguing with it). Till this day (5 months after the fact) I have never received the so-called refund. I will never deal with that outfit again. I would rather go to ubid or yahoo auctions or even auctionaddict.com – but never winners24! >(
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:38 am
My cousin got 3 free bids for signing up. She won an Ipod for .83 cents and a Wii for $1.88. They were both delivered free of charge. If your lucky you can make out. I on the other hand have been outbid. But neither of us bought any bids.
September 12th, 2009 at 06:29 am
I have used this site daily, it’s not a scam. they do ship all the items, and yes although it can get expensive bidding and you can get “over your head” doing so, the site is great. I have spent a lot of money on it, and won planty. I also had much fun with it. They delivered all the items as said, not refurbished but new. In period of 2 mths i have spent some good money on it, but i won a lot of prizes also. I came out even, but had so much fun too. This site is so addictive when you bid on one item, you keep bidding until you may or may not win…. for example on 100 bids once i spent 58 bids and did not win, another time i spent 3 bids and won 100 free bids. It all depends on traffic and luck!
But the site is great!……….that is the only opinion i can give you, i have played and experienced it first hand.
September 15th, 2009 at 01:44 am
Its a scam…. I have watched this site for hours and I have seen too many times where users just come in and win too easy. usually it happens at the end of the timer, which usually takes 3-4 seconds to win the bid. A auto-bid user comes into the bidding and wins because instead of 3-4 seconds it takes 1 second for them to win. Four times I have been left clicking over and over trying to get my bid in while there should be 2 seconds left before closing. Also, I’ve seen users bid 400 times (or $400.00) for something that only cost $200.00. I saw a user spend 560 bids ($560.00) for a XBOX w/ 80 gig hd. Someone should call FCC or something.
October 7th, 2009 at 12:12 am
I don’t think this is a scam. I honestly truly won a WII with only one bid. I then put more money in and only won more bids and never won anything else. I am taking a break. It looks like once the auction is won they order the item on Amazon and have it shipped to the winner. My Wii came with the receipt from Amazon. It is that Lailamar and her family that seem to win ALOT. They did change the rules recently so you can only win 10 times a month including bid auctions and only 3 a day not including bid auctions. Don’t hate the player hate the game. It is a brilliant idea if there is no padding going on.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
this site is a scam i have noticed that there are 3 multipul winners on a daliy basis all 3 are from the same town i counted there wins in a 24 hour period 2 of them had won 7 or more and the third had won 5. i noticed that thay always bid on the more populer items as if too raise the bids.i was a sucker for the site and gave it a go but then noticed this pattern.hell i am from a larger city and have never seen anyone else from here on winners but these three are from the same town, each win several times daliy.hmmmm
July 3rd, 2010 at 12:07 am
there are so many scams running on the internete so watch out;:,