Yebo Millionaires: here’s a more automated way of entering for free and you could win R1,000,000

Did you know that you if you are a Vodacom subscriber, then you get 2 free SMSs per week to enter the Yebo Millionaires competition?
Further to my posting in Aug 2009 “Yebo Millionaires: enter for free and you could win R1,000,000” I’ve discovered other ways of entering the competition – the most convenient is the UPICK (read “you pick”) option below:

You can enter the competition in one of three ways:

1. SMS any nine alphabet letters to 32082
Pick nine letters from the alphabet, in any order
Receive and answer an easy entry question via SMS
Wait for a confirmation SMS that includes your reference number
Your entry is instantly added to the weekly lucky draw
You are allowed to enter two free SMSs per week with any nine letters
Prepaid and Top Up customers get an additional SMS for every recharge made during the week
SMSs cannot be carried over to the following week and extra SMS entries will be charged at R1.00 (VAT included) per SMS

2. SMS ‘UPICK’ to 32082
With ‘UPICK’ Vodacom will randomly generate nine letters for you
SMS the word ‘UPICK’ to 32082 and the same UPICK will be entered for the next four consecutive draws
Your UPICK entry will use your free SMSs first
Each ‘UPICK’ equals one entry
Each ‘UPICK’ entry returns an SMS confirmation with a reference number, draw date and the nine lucky letters
After the four consecutive draws are used, an SMS reminder is sent to re-enter your ‘UPICK’
If you have entered more than two UPICK entries, additional entries will be charged at R1 per entry

3. SMS ‘SAME’ to 32082
SMS ‘SAME’ followed by a space and nine lucky letters to 32082 to enter the same letter for the next four consecutive draws
Your SAME entry will use your free SMSs first
Each ‘SAME’ SMS will count as one entry
Each ‘SAME’ entry returns an SMS confirmation with a reference number, draw date and the nine lucky letters
After the four consecutive draws are used, an SMS reminder is sent to re-enter your ‘SAME’ again
If you have entered more than two SAME’ entries, additional entries will be charged at R1 per entry

This info was found here: http://www.vodacom.co.za/portal/site/vodacom/yebomillionaires/?ciFormat=format7

So, all you Lotto players - try your hand at this method of winning some $s

Beware, reports of the Lotto machines allegedly not reading cards and barcodes correctly could dupe you out of millions!

A couple of callers to CapeTalk radio station the other night (16th July) warned the public to check their Lotto cards - both when submitting their numbers and also when checking if it was a winning card. The allegedly faulty readers were blamed on the poor servicing of the machines causing the barcode readers to misread the cards and tickets. This means that if your local store's machine has this problem then you and I could be badly affected and contribute to the unclaimed funds.

The barcodes are used at the start and end of the Lotto process ie: when you choose your numbers and when you check if you are a winner!

So, say you choose numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6... the allegedly inaccurate barcode readers might register 11,2,3,4,5,6 (or whatever, but not what you wanted)... then again, when you check your card for winners.. if the winning numbers are 1,2,3,4,5,6.... it might read your card as 11,2,3,4,5,6 and you could lose out on winning millions!!!!

The first caller told of her experience: she was pretty sure her ticket was a winning ticket and took it to the local store for cashing in... but when it was passed through the barcode reader there was no winning flagged :( So, she went home (with her ticket luckily) and checked the newspaper again. Sure enough it was definitely a winning ticket - so she went back to the store. She was again told that it was not a winner. She then insisted that the teller punch in the numbers into the machine manually. Sure enough the ticket was then "seen" as a winner!

A second caller was a Lotto vendor and also agreed with the first caller and added a further "twist" - saying that a few clients had also complained that the readers were inputting incorrect numbers ie: the six numbers scribbled into the input form were not read correctly and so not entered onto the official ticket correctly. So, this had to be redone manually. The vendor also complained that the machines were not serviced often enough.

So, some advice from HTT:
1) Make sure that the numbers that you scribble onto the card are in fact on your official ticket - the ticket is what counts when it comes to winning the money.
2) After the draw, check your ticket against the winning numbers (don't rely on the barcode reader to tell you if you're a winner)
3) If the teller says you're not a winner then take the "losing" ticket with you - don't leave it with the teller to (perhaps) manually enter the numbers later (and claim the prize for him/herself)

Use HTT's Lotto calculator: Check your past Lotto and LottoPlus tickets against all the past draws

Perhaps this is why there are so many unclaimed prizes - please add your comment below and let us know if this problem really exists and how widespread it is.