Be lucky in lockdown: Meet the super-successful competition pros

Many people have turned to baking and gardening in lockdown, but others have used their free time on the sometimes lucrative pursuit of ‘comping’.

Comping is where you enter as many competitions as you can — from online prize draws to magazine quizzes. The idea is that the more you enter, the more likely you are to win.

With time to play with, one in four people has taken part in competitions and prize draws in the past three months, according to promotions firm PromoVeritas. But is it really worth it?

Mother-of-two Keena Anderson certainly thinks so after winning flowers, gin, a £100 Netflix voucher and a £100 Go Ape outdoor adventure voucher in the first week of June alone.

The school behaviour manager spends 20 minutes looking for online competitions before getting her children, Rae, 11, and Renz, ten, up in the morning.

She enters up to 60 a month. Some require a small purchase and a code to be entered online. 

Keena won £500 of kitchen equipment by spending £10 on Onken yoghurt, for example. Others ask for videos or posts on social media.

In 2018 she and nine colleagues split a £3,000 prize after their 30-second video won a Heart Radio competition.

Keena has won an average of £100 in prizes a month over the years. Big wins include a £1,149 iPhone X, three PlayStation 4s and an Apple Watch.

She hears about prizes through comping Facebook groups such as Lucky Learners, Bristol Compers Club and West Country Compers.

Keena, 38, says: ‘You have got to be in it to win it. Some of these competitions just involve posting a photo.’

Kirsty Connor has also won thousands of pounds in prizes since she began comping three years ago.

Her biggest victory was a weekend trip to Majorca on a private plane for 100 people in April last year — worth £500,000 — after entering a Jet2 competition on Facebook.

It was hosted by celebrity Rylan Clark-Neal and included a private party with the band Rudimental, plus Troy the Magician.

She also won three nights in Prague by posting a photo of herself online with a box of Staropramen beer, and a three-night stay in Paris by buying Nestle chocolate and entering a code online.

The pregnant council worker enters 20-30 competitions a day. However, during lockdown and on maternity leave she does more.

Kirsty, who lives with husband John and son Leon, five, in Glasgow, says: ‘My husband thinks I spend too much time doing it, but I won him a bottle of whisky recently so he benefits, too!’

She avoids time-consuming prize draws that include surveys to prevent spam emails later. Raffles where a home is the prize are also ignored, as these can vanish. 

Not all competitions will dish out advertised prizes. In 2018 a Money Mail investigation revealed well-known brands withheld prizes through sneaky tactics. 

The terms and conditions of some competitions state all promotional codes printed must be entered.

Pet food firm Forthglade is offering £100,000 in prizes, including a VW camper van. The terms reveal not all prizes will be won unless all 3,582,234 codes are submitted.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has to intervene often. In January Nestle was ordered to adjust wording after it exaggerated the odds of winning.

Jeremy Stern, of PromoVeritas, urges people to avoid competitions that ask lots of questions, as your data may be sold. 

He says: ‘A good promotion will have the significant terms and conditions up front with a link to the full terms.’

Fraudsters often pose as legitimate companies to try to steal your personal details. One warning sign is if the social media page has only been set up recently with no contact information. 

Official company Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages should have a blue tick next to their name.

Scammers may also try to intercept you on genuine websites by claiming they have won and encouraging you to follow a link.

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