Sometimes, Theresa and I get a good laugh by opening junk mail, so, I have tended to open it on occasions. For example, if there is an envelope that clearly looks like junk mail and also appears to have a check inside, I like to open it and say to her, "Look, Honey, we've got a check for $5,000.00 in the mail. Wow, that is great!!" Then, I flip it over to read the fine print and announce the oppressive interest rate that I agree to by cashing the check. Then we laugh, rip it up, and toss it.
I came home on Thursday to a mailer with the Presidential Seal on it saying, over the colors of the American Flag, that I would receive top dollar for my current vehicle and that "Kelley Blue Book Official Guide will be honored." I was intrigued, so I opened it. After considering what "honored" meant in the ad, my eyes were drawn lower to a much more important pronouncement. There, below the fold of the mailer, was the following: "ATTENTION, enclosed is a scratcher ticket with a value of up to $10,000 CASH." My colorful scratcher ticket was enclosed. Winning was simple. If you scratched off three matching symbols, you won. As the advertisement stated, "to win: the winning boxes below must be the same." It also guaranteed that the winning $10,000 scratcher had been mailed. Somehow, I assumed my boxes would match (by golly, I like to think I'm a winner!!!), and they did! Then, I read the finest fine print, and discovered the odds of winning. There were six prizes, five of which were bona fide big time prizes. The six, well, I don't know, but the odds of winning one of the 5 big prizes were 1 in 12,500. The odds of winning the six prize.....12495:12,500.......... Yes, your statistical calculation is correct! Everyone wins! Be it a pen, a credit towards the purchase of a new vehicle, or whatever. My scratcher ticket was a winner. I might be one of the lucky 5, but, probably won't go in to check. I do, however, wonder how many folks that got the mailer thought they really had won one of the big prizes.....
Let me be clear here, they are giving away prizes to everyone who got the mailer, so this really is a nice way for them to entice people to their store, and I kind of feel like this is a fairly harmless bit of playful deception.
But, there are other more dangerous junk mailers. If you get the check in the mail that Theresa and I laugh about, just throw it away. I see so many people who get into bad situations with high interest rate loans, or get into a cycle of payday to payday loans, that it just makes me sick. There are folks out there who, to keep from bouncing a check they wrote to a payday loan place, have to go back to that payday loan place, or another one, and write another check to get cash which they can deposit to keep the first check from bouncing--then do it again, then again, then again and again, always paying the ridiculous fees for the privilege of the up-front cash. That cycle can be broken, and people caught in it know it needs to be broken, they just feel like there is no way out. People who, from the outside, see things like this happen are truly informed in their perspective. From an ivory tower, those who don't see it might feel like money problems come from being lazy. It is truly not so. People work hard, but everyone can't be as successful as those in the ivory tower, and everyone does not start from the same place in the race towards the American Dream. Illnesses, job loss, divorces, and poverty happen to good people, and once the problem begins, the attempts to solve the problem can make bigger problems. If you are in the cycle, please consider seeking help from an attorney.
Next time you get that flyer in the mail, read the fine print, laugh about it, and throw it away. Unless, that is, you are looking for a new car. In which case, maybe you might win $10,000 (payable in monthly installments of $208.33 per month for 48 months).
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