Skip to content
PromoVeritas
PromoVeritas
Contact Us
PromoVeritas
  • Home
  • About Us
  • What We Do and Why
  • Our Work
  • News
  • Join the Team
  • Contact

Could the $24m McMillions Scam ever happen again?

Abi Roman May 22, 2020

McMillion$ (on Sky from 27 May 2020) is the incredible story of how staff at the marketing agency behind the famous McDonald’s Monopoly promotion in the USA carried out a massive fraud and stole $24 million in prize money over ten years. The six episodes follow the FBI investigation that uncovered the scam and led to over 50 people being indicted.

The series raises the question, just how safe are the prize promotions that are run by brands in the UK? Do they ever award those big prizes, and do they do so fairly and securely?   And could that level of fraud happen again ?

Our CEO Jeremy Stern thinks it most definitely could. As the founder of PromoVeritas, for the past 20 years his mission has been to keep prize promotions safe and secure – protecting the public from bad actions, and protecting the reputation (and budgets) of brands such as Cadbury, Kellogg’s, and Pepsi. ‘I started the company following a career in marketing, where I saw many bad situations. Winners being picked and then rejected because they shopped in the wrong store or lived too far from an airport or they were too old or did not fit the desired image of the brand. I wanted to provide an easy way for brands to run their promotions right – and follow the law and the rules of the Advertising Standards Authority.’  Now the company he started in his back room, is responsible for over 1,500 promotions a year, awarding over 1 million prizes for promotions run in more than 50 countries. They are the people who put the Golden Tickets in packs of Cadbury Creme Eggs, worth £10,000 each, judge Instagram photo competitions and handle all the winners of weekly prize draws for O2. Just last month they oversaw the secure awarding of the top £1m prize in the Heart FM Make Me A Millionaire live on-air promotion.

‘The problem’  Stern says, ‘is that promotional compliance is not considered enough at the right level. Lawyers might know what needs to be done, but not the mechanics, the creative agency is usually more interested in ‘the next big thing’ than in the mundane task of properly judging competition entries. And few brand managers think about the security risks of their great ‘Golden Ticket’ instant win idea – prize packs can ‘go missing’ anywhere along the distribution chain’.

Whether it is an old school Golden Ticket promotion or a more modern web based entry route, all of them have built in risk and they are just as open to being cheated, by internal staff, trade or the consumer, as the McDonald’s promotion was back in the 90’s. To find out more about the inner workings  of today’s massive consumer promotions, what the risks are and how they can be prevented contact PromoVeritas. Watch McMillion$ on Sky from 27th May.

Run it Right.

Images copyright Adobe Stock.
« Lord Sugar’s tweet banned. Time for a recap on Influencer Marketing rules? PromoVeritas oversee Heart’s Make Me A Millionaire »

Call us on 0203 325 6000 to find out how we can help your promotion

+44 (0)203 325 6000
info@promoveritas.com
  • Home
  • About Us
  • What We Do and Why
  • Our Work
  • News
  • Join the Team
  • Contact
Proud members of ISO-27001 Accredited Proud members of
Run it Right.
© 2023 PromoVeritas
Privacy Policy Terms of Service Website Terms & Conditions Cookies Policy
We use cookies on our website. All the cookies we use can be viewed using the Cookie Settings button. By clicking “ACCEPT” you consent to the use of all cookies. You cannot disable our essential cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Read More
ACCEPTCookie settings
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Essential
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

CookieTypeDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary011 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary011 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
viewed_cookie_policy011 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Non Essential

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

CookieTypeDurationDescription
_ga01 yearThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_UA-15728851-301 minuteThis is a pattern type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element on the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. It appears to be a variation of the _gat cookie which is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites.
_gid01 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
bcookie01 yearThis cookie is set by linkedIn. The purpose of the cookie is to enable LinkedIn functionalities on the page.
bscookie11 year
csrftoken011 monthsThis cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
GPS030 minutesThis cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location
IDE11 yearUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
ig_did11 year
ig_nrcb01 year
lang0This cookie is used to store the language preferences of a user to serve up content in that stored language the next time user visit the website.
li_sugr02 months
lidc01 dayThis cookie is set by LinkedIn and used for routing.
lissc01 year
mid01 yearThe cookie is set by Instagram. The cookie is used to distinguish users and to show relevant content, for better user experience and security.
test_cookie011 months
u02 months
UserMatchHistory01 month
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE15 monthsThis cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website.
YSC1This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos.
Save & Accept