[leadf00t]

For curiosity sake. What is the channel and what is the number they request to be dialed.

[benbsb29]

About the show in question, i always felt it below my level of intelligence so never bothered to call.

There were these silly SMS based questions which used to show up on MTV earlier, to which i used to send the answers during my gullible days. Atleast the questions then required some sense of thought, but when they became so straight-forward then it became a question of common sense. Needless to say, i havent fallen for any such gimmicks in a long time.

[vasoo]

The idea is to keep callers waiting till the call charges/commission they receive exceed the price money. So naturally they keep you waiting till they earn the buck and of course you lose them! My cousin works in a related industry and he said none of the calls are never attended immediately but kept on hold with more promises.

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

but when they became so straight-forward then it became a question of common sense. Needless to say, i havent fallen for any such gimmicks in a long time.

That is the idea. With more and more people having access to mobiles, and the reward money getting bigger and bigger the answers have to be simple so that they get huge responses and the mobile company gets its share so does the channel and so does the TV program producer. What ever is left, the gift is bought and sent to the winner. So to have maximum response the questions have to be simple. Plus people with IQ less than your's and mine, are bound to fall into the trap saying "Aaah I know this one" .

When Boogie Woogie was at its prime some 10 years back, they had asked a tough question to which I had answered in simple postal letter format.
The question was: Which dance format is famous in Spain. Since I remebered reding it in the encyclopedia "World Book", I wrote the answer Flamingo Dance and sent it. After quite an anxious week I ran bck from classes to watch the program only to see a scroll appear at the bottom of the TV set: Please send all your answers using Competition postcards only.
I lost a Wrangler jeans hamper back then. But the same year I got a certificate from the makers of the serial "Aahat" on Sony for writing a story for them.

Atleast I got something. Now there is a fat chance of winning anything anywhere.
The point is, earlier we needed some kind of talent to win something. Now mobile balance will do.

[aargee]

When Boogie Woogie was at its prime some 10 years back, they had asked a tough question to which I had answered in simple postal letter format

This is something that I appreciate on TV's. But again, no one wants to break their head thinking about all this to answer. Ten years back, not many homes had internet connection, not many houses had multiple mobile phones, yet people took time to find the answers & post them. Now its even more simple to search things & send responses, then why not the questions are challenging? Like you said, the mobile balance should suffice; in a way, KBC was far better.

[vinaydas]

i have stopped playing these pay to win kinda games long long back. The Chances of you winning are close to 0%. Even if you win,they call you and say buy so and so package and we will give you this free.

I absolutely hate the new Pepsi add involving paying for games through sms(obviously) to cross each levels or something like that.
This is looting at a national level.

The only good and fair lottery which i have played(rather my dad) is the dubai duty free lottery(he won a 3 series!!, but gave it away for cash as he already had a lex)

[mjothi]

The worst is SMS based texts. You send votes for someone to get laks and that too by spending your money

For every SMS displayed on TV (in sun music, udaya etc or almost all music channels) the revenue is shared between the provider and the TV guys. The later gets more share.

Wake up India

[aargee]

Originally Posted by mjothi

The worst is SMS based texts. You send votes for someone to get laks and that too by spending your money

For every SMS displayed on TV (in sun music, udaya etc or almost all music channels) the revenue is shared between the provider and the TV guys. The later gets more share.

Whoa!!! One of the most valid points & agree with you blind fold. Are you referring to Idea star singer in Asianet? Last time the top contestant got around 1.25 Lakh votes on SMS & he was a winner & the second person was about a Lakh & few thousands. So just imagine how much revenue these mobile companies, sponsors & the producers make. Well I never had such a insight on this kind of programs based on SMS, now that I know, I'll ask people to refrain from such activities.
PS - We haven't sent a single SMS to anyone till date to cast vote except that my Mother & Wifey are fan of this program.

[Live To Jive]

It happens in other countries too. Not only with TV shows but with customer care too. A friend told me that in UK whenever you call any customer care number for any product or service it's a 1-900 number (damn expensive). People think it's free like 1-800. Then it's the usual press 1 for this and 2 for that. By the time someone talks to you it's a good 2-3 minutes. Then he'll ask you a load of questions. After that he'll say that he'll transfer you to someone who can solve the problem. Then again you're on hold for another 2-3 minutes. Finally someone answers and asks you the same load of questions. At the end your call is 15 min or more. Then the telephone company and the other company share your money.

[Blue_V]

Certain popular newspapers promoting bogus electronics stuff. Its a shame. They should be promoting quality products.

[rishab.k]

Originally Posted by Live To Jive

It happens in other countries too. Not only with TV shows but with customer care too. A friend told me that in UK whenever you call any customer care number for any product or service it's a 1-900 number (damn expensive). People think it's free like 1-800. Then it's the usual press 1 for this and 2 for that. By the time someone talks to you it's a good 2-3 minutes. Then he'll ask you a load of questions. After that he'll say that he'll transfer you to someone who can solve the problem. Then again you're on hold for another 2-3 minutes. Finally someone answers and asks you the same load of questions. At the end your call is 15 min or more. Then the telephone company and the other company share your money.

It seems we are slowly moving in that direction too.
This is what I experienced a few days back.Earlier my bank ,a so called leading private bank (no prizes for guessing which one), had a toll free customer care number but now they have changed it to a mobile number.
So, when I called that number, first few minutes were lost in choosing the language & the other options.It doesn't give you an option of talking to a customer care executive directly unless you have punched in your account number,date of birth ,debit card number and what not.When I finally reached the CCE & narrated my problem I was put on hold for the next five minutes on the pretext of checking my account while the CCE obviously took another call.Then after a few minutes the CCE released the hold only to ask for some additional information & again put me on hold for the next few minutes.Finally I demanded to speak to the manager & the call was transferred but no one bothered to pick up the phone.
Finally I hung up in disgust only to realize that I had spent 15 minutes on that call which is obviously equivalent to 15 calls.
I just hope the bank has not signed a revenue sharing agreement with that mobile company.

[Schnellster]

As a matter of fact - deep down sms/calling a premium number is nothing but gambling: A game of chance where people bet and there is a winner.
People place bets by sending the sms and from the pool collected a prize is given to a lucky winner. - And gambling is illegal

modus operandi : Keep the question/puzzle very simple - so every other person gets the josh to reply

Examples of how this happens blatantly in news channels and other channels and newspaper ads

1. Opinion polls - sms a,b,c - reg some hot topic being debated
2. When a match is on, sms who the winner is , and win a pair of goggles!
3. Sprite/thumpsup/limca etc etc - sms the code beneath the cap to xxxxx
4. Reality shows
5. Ad campaigns - Eg: The recent wagon R think big contest -



All these sms/calls costs anywhere from Rs 3 to Rs20 depending on the deal - No wonder they can give 1 lakh or 10 lakhs or 1 crore as cash prize.

Jago grahak jago

[GTO]

Originally Posted by bblost

If you can recognize the face and call then you will win Rs 80,000.

So I dial in. Put on hold. A girls voice goes on and on about how I stand to win money if I am patient. 2 minutes and 30 seconds later I disconnect.
Rs 36 down the drain.

India is such a vast country, and the general public so gullible, that even a small time show on a small time channel will get a 100,000 calls if the timing is right.

100,000 x 12 = 12 lakhs (though I'd fully expect a majority of the calls to last over a minute).

Pay winner = Rs. 80,000 (if at all).

Marketeer buys a Chevy Cruze with the profit and high-revvs away into the sunset

Reminds me of the SMS Scam thread, and in particular, Rehaan's post:

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Add to that, IF you are bothered about being scammed out of your 10 Rs enough to actually make a big deal about it -- they might gladly refund your Rs 10.

Reminds me of this joke / story (quite brilliant) :

[alpha1]

I am not sure if anyone here is aware of this MyTV channel.
There is a quiz contest the whole day.

The quiz contest is either of these two:
1. Two movie actors (male / female) are shown with only half their faces - but these two halves are merged together.

2. One movie actor (male/female) is shown with only bottom half of the face.

People are supposed to ring their special number which has tariff of Rs12/minute and can be dialed only from GSM operated numbers like Vodafone, Airtel etc; and wait for a chance to blurt the answer.

Now if you view this for say 1/2 hour also - (yes, I was bored, but interested in finding out the scam behind this) - you will feel that idiots are calling and hence cannot guess the obvious answers.

Remember the show in in Hindi, and even the people who hate bollywood movies / bollywood "industry" (like me) can identify the faces.

So, as I said - if you watch this for even 5-10 minutes, you will be inclined to believe that you can crack it.

A big SURPRISE for you.
You cannot because you are always kept on hold. Whether its 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 1/2 hour, 1 hour - you will always get the message that you have to hold on.

So the scam is (you can make out after watching for few extended minutes, but I confirmed this by watching it for almost an hour - on random time and random days) -
1. idiots call in and give wrong answers
2. you feel confident and are sure that you will win (since the answer is so obvious)
3. you dial the number and you are kept on hold. Greed for the prize keeps you on (or curiosity in my stupid case)
4. while you await your chance, your meter is ticking and you are being charged cool 12 rupees per minute
5. idiot after another idiot get chances to answer the question - but they can't
6. the reason why they can't is because they are puppets - sponsored by the program, but unknown to you - so they keep spewing wrong answers
7. you drop the call after frustration of waiting for extended period

Now what has happened?
Your call has been charged.
Your telecom operator laughs the way to bank.
The MyTV folks also laugh the way to bank - because VERY OBVIOUSLY they work hand in glove with your telecom operator.
There is no other method of revenue for them.

MyTV runs a disclaimer that the calls are selected at random by unbiased computer algorithms. Fine - somehow I have never seen anyone answer correctly and win the prize!

Isn't that strange for a random result?
I have even observed that the idiots who answer can be recognized after a while - which means the same set of people - puppets get to answer the quiz.

And this is relayed by other TV channels too like Zoom TV etc.
I don't know how long this scam has been going on - but I just discovered because I bought a TV recently after a decade of not watching the television.


(Idiot = mental faculties of less than 3 yr old, so please don't take it as an abuse)

[NoRules]

Bblost,

This happens on several channels, even sports channels like Neo Sports. Even a small child can identify the sports person in question but surprisingly none of the actual callers get it right.

Now a days almost all the channels run such shows after prime time, even Telugu channels have joined the bandwagon.