Most sweepstakes are run by legitimate companies that offer you the chance to win real cash prizes in most states across the US. However, there are sweepstakes out there that are cons. How can you tell the difference between a legitimate sweepstake site and a site that’s simply trying to gather your personal information?
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Privacy Policies
A sweepstakes site will need to collect a certain amount of personal information from you to sign up. One way that legitimate sweepstakes stand out from the scams is by their use of a privacy policy to let you know exactly how they will use the information they gather and why.
A trustworthy privacy policy should tell you why the company needs the information that they’re asking for and what they’ll do with it once you’ve given the information. It specifies how they’ll store your information, whether they’ll share it with any partner companies and how they will keep it secure for you.
Do your research
When it comes to buying anything online or carrying out any transaction, you should always do your research. There are sites that review everything, from toasters, to cruises and everything in between.
When it comes to finding a reputable sweepstake game online, you can check out sites like sweepstake-caisnos.com who provide unbiased, reliable reviews on licensed sweepstake operators.
Rules Pages
Legitimate sweepstakes sites have rules for their contests and they should make those rules clearly available to you. Some jurisdictions have specific laws covering what needs to be in the rules and how the company should make them available for you.
Sweepstakes rules might be many pages long, or they could only be a sentence or two. However, they should be present and easy for you to find. This isn’t a sure fire way of knowing whether they’re legitimate or not but most reputable sweepstakes casinos should have them in place.
Know Your Customer Forms
It’s standard for legitimate sweepstakes to ask you for information such as your name, address, date of birth, email address, and telephone number when signing up. This is known as KYC (know your customer) form.
However, they should absolutely never require that you enter financial information such as your social security number, a credit card number or a bank account number.
Safe Deposit Methods
Another good way of knowing whether a sweepstakes casino is legitimate or not is by the different deposit options they have on offer. The companies that facilitate these transactions wouldn’t risk their reputations and have a number of ways they safeguard their users.
There’s a variety of different options when it comes to how you would like to pay. Online gambling is still relatively new to the U.S so naturally, players are going to worry when it comes to depositing funds. However, technological advances in recent years have increased security levels with SSL certificates amongst other things.
Most sweepstakes casinos accept credit or debit cards. It’s a quick and easy way to deposit funds and usually, there are no fees involved. It’s an extremely secure way to pay, as your card details are protected by encryption technology.
Another safe method of depositing funds is through an e-wallet service like PayPal. It is worth noting that there may be fees involved with using this service, so make sure you check before you sign up.
GooglePay is a new but safe option. Google is one of the most reputable companies in the world so it’s only natural that they would be very careful about who they work with and where they advertise themselves. It’s a huge brand with a global reputation that it needs to uphold.
It couldn’t and wouldn’t tarnish that by being associated with anything that wasn’t legitimate. A growing number of sweepstakes casinos are accepting GooglePay as a method of payment.
GooglePay is easy to use and is becoming an increasingly popular option for bettors and sweepstakes casinos alike.
Conclusion
When opening an account with a sweepstakes casino it is important to do your background research. Whilst most are safe and fun places to play, hackers are always finding new ways to access your information. Doing a background check and reading some user reviews of different operators is a simple way that you can protect yourself and gamble with peace of mind.
