By Lee Scott

How many times have you gone into the grocery store, or your bank or your local department store and the clerk says “Please complete the survey which you will find at the end of your receipt. You may win a prize.” Then she adds, “Please say good things about me, because we are rated on how many people send in positive reviews.”

Now the pressure is on because you really like the clerk and she is always very pleasant and efficient.  So you go home and decide before you throw that receipt away, “Why not? I can plug in my “enter code here” on their website.” What harm?

First you have to agree to “our terms” and by the way, “have you read our Privacy Policy?” It is a hyper-link so realistically most people who have gotten this far do not bother to read it. Basically what it is saying is that they are probably not going to sell any of the information you provide except to their affiliates one of which happens to be a large Tele-marketing Firm.

After agreeing to all the rules, you proceed to the questions which need to be answered before you are “Entered into the sweepstakes”. Here are some of the questions on the latest survey.

How old are you? How much is your family income? What are your shopping habits? I feel all of this information going into some large data base that already knows most of my buying habits. Yes, I use those 20% off coupons from Bed, Bath and Beyond that already have a code on them. Yes, I run over to Talbots for their 60% off sales and to Belk’s for their Senior Days. (Over 55) I know that I am getting tracked anyway, but I am not comfortable answering all these personal questions on a survey to win some small prize. All I want to do is provide my name and phone number to qualify for the sweepstakes and hopefully win a prize.  And of course, I want to say good things about the clerk.

There is another real problem I discovered after filling out one of these surveys. The SPAM filter on my AOL account goes on hyper-drive for three days or so. Incredible amount of e-mails and they all want to sell me something based on my buying habits. So the next time you get the “You could win” receipt or notices. Go ahead and do what you normally do, just throw it away. I understand. Because the truth be told, the less people that enter the sweepstakes, helps to increase my odds for winning.