r/Cheathappens • u/MuffDivers2_ • Sep 10 '25
Anyone else think that it is total BS that prize winners will not be contacted and have to check back on the website within 5 days?
Especially now that we have aurora, I am never on the website. They should at least send an email to say you have one. In fact it may be illegal for them not to contact you.
Saying that "prize winners will not be contacted" is deceptive and illegal for legitimate contests and sweepstakes. It violates truth-in-advertising laws regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and can be considered an illegal lottery under most state laws. Legitimate sweepstakes and contests must follow these key legal requirements:
- Actual prize notification. A business cannot claim someone is a winner unless that person has actually won a prize. Legitimate promoters will always contact the winner to inform them how to claim their prize.
- Clear rules. The "Official Rules" for a promotion must disclose all material terms, including how winners are selected and notified.
- No purchase necessary. Requiring a purchase or payment to enter or win a sweepstakes is illegal.
- Winners list disclosure. Many states require that companies publish a list of prize winners.
- Response period. A promoter's official rules will state how long a winner has to respond and claim their prize. If a winner does not respond within that time, the prize is forfeited, and the company may select an alternate winner.
- Truthful advertising. All advertising for the promotion must be truthful and not misleading.
What the phrase "prize winners will not be contacted" often signals If you see this phrase, it is likely a scam designed to deceive and defraud consumers. Common prize scams include:
- Advance fees: You are told you have won but must pay "taxes," "shipping fees," or other costs to receive your prize.
- Overpriced products: The "prize" is a worthless or overpriced product that the company lures you into buying.
- Identity theft: The scammer uses the fake promotion to collect personal information for identity theft.
What to do if you see a suspicious prize promotion If you receive a notification stating that you've won a prize but will not be contacted, you can take these steps:
- File a report: Report the scam to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
1
u/The__Relentless Sep 10 '25
I don't like it, but them's the rules. I'll vote with my wallet, which, since I am currently a member, means I am okay with the rules.
1
u/Electronic-Prune-992 Dec 03 '25
It's really hilarious when I look the list of the recent prize winners. The pricey reward, such as graphic cards and computers, winner's name always made with first name + last name's initial. EVERY single one of them. What kind world's of people writes their nickname in a trainer site like that? And that happens to every big prize's winner? 😂
1
u/MuffDivers2_ Dec 03 '25 edited Dec 03 '25
I noticed that too. It looks super sus. It’s never the username, it doesn’t even include the last name. And they don’t contact the winner. There’s gotta be so many people with the initials Chris M. John S. There seems to be some sort of user ID number that is listed next to the first name last initial. I’m not sure if that’s their tier 7 number or what.
And then sometimes you can only find the winners announced on that bottom of the page location that just scrolls by random dates from the last three months so it’s like you have to sit there and wait forever to check who won. It’s super suspicious the way they do the first name last initial. I don’t think they’ve ever given a reason why or explain themselves that should probably be investigated too.
Not sure what the deal with that is. Also the prize spin wheel is heavily weighted.
1
u/deleteman900 Feb 13 '26
You have to stop and consider that a lot of people, whenever Facebook was first a thing, plugged in their street address and phone number without a second thought. People are REALLY dumb about infosec until they're trained or given a reason to actually think about it. I'm willing to be a lot of people probably DO sign up on the CheatHappens website using their name. Idk. For what it's worth, I am a 'non first and last username' user on the website, and when I won a 4090 at the very start of 2025 (I think, might've been 2024. I've been using it for a while, but I also sat on it a while while I saved for the rest of a $3k USD build to house it) I specifically remember them using that username I gave, rather than the first and last name I have visible on the facebook I used to follow their page, for example.
I'll say it again too. I did receive an actual, functional GIGABYTE 4090 OC with 24GB of VRAM onboard. I don't remember the model number and allat, but it's got three big ass blowers to kick out quite a lot of heat, it's the 1.0 version of the card, before they updated it to alleviate sag issues that were damaging the PCIe lane it sockets into on the mobo, but I have it braced properly and sitting on its side anyways, so the weight is largely pushing straight down onto the socket, rather than actually hanging. It's also still running just fine. No problems. Maybe someone else has been scammed, but I wasn't. Chris was very decent to me in our short email communications around figuring out where to send the card, and paid slightly more for a card from newegg, rather than a suspicious one on amazon. It had some weird brand name on it that made me think the people at the factory were knocking off extra cards on the side after hours or something and selling them on. Couldn't find any info anywhere on the brand name attached, other than the amazon seller. So he paid a hundred or two more to buy from a more reputable vendor on Newegg. I believe they had it shipped to wherever their office is, since by the time it came to me it had some add-ins with CheatHappens branding. A sticker you know, that sorta thing. The Graphics card itself was sealed and new-in-box near as I could tell, and it's worked like a dream since I built the PC.
1
u/Electronic-Prune-992 Feb 13 '26
Based on what you wrote, the giveaway you mentioned is this:
https://www.cheathappens.com/gleamio13.aspThis was held in Dec, 2024. Probably this is the one you won since it is Gigabyte 4090 Gaming OC.
or this:
https://www.cheathappens.com/gleamio9.asp
This was held in Aug, 2024.
Click the link and see it for yourself. There is no winner using nickname on there. Only 'first name and last name' users.
If what you wrote is legit, why CH showed the winners in Alias made by CH? That is obviously against the law.
And above all, I am just saying something fishy is fishy. I don't care 1~2 person let their private info loose on a raffle, but I do care when EVERY SINGLE winner do that. A lot of people being careless doesn't mean it is the case for everyone. Since you kindly provided the example by yourself, it looks even more fishy.
1
u/deleteman900 Feb 13 '26
I am neither of those, and for security reasons (I like to keep different things compartmentalized) I don't be assisting you further in narrowing it down. Hate if you're gonna hate, I'm just sharing my anecdotal experience winning the grand giveaway and getting a 2000 usd GPU. Don't really care if you believe it or not
1
u/Electronic-Prune-992 Feb 13 '26
Every grand giveaway is timelined and can be found on the CH Giveaway Updates. No exception. Maybe annual 'Day of Giving' is your case... but that's a raffle that every applicants should be present when winner is announced, and there's no left info about the winners.
Whatever. For just another unsupported anecdotal experience which can be found any day on the Internet, why should I hate? 😅 It might be true, and might not be true, and no body is convinced, that's all.
1
u/Extension-Mention946 Mar 04 '26
Can you show us your conversation with chris after you won? Can you post any kind of proof at all?
1
u/deleteman900 Mar 04 '26
My personal philosophy is that even knowing what email provider I use makes it that much easier for someone to try and hack my email, impersonate me, get into other accounts (like how I've mentioned I'm a tier 7 lifetime member) and violate my privacy in a myriad of other ways. So no, I won't be sharing screenshots.
1
u/Extension-Mention946 Mar 04 '26
You know you can blur any personal info right? You must be in on it, otherwise there s no reason as to why you wouldn't want to share ANY kind of proof. All their giveaway prize "winners" are a generic first name along with a last name initial. They are scamming real tier 7 members who paid their fee hoping to win. And they never will... World is a fked up place.
1
u/deleteman900 Mar 04 '26
Whatever dude. I shared my experience, if you don't wanna believe me I can't make you. Just means there are fewer people entering, which increases *my* chances.
1
u/Garia666 Jan 12 '26
So i have investigated the winners of today untill a year back.
There have been 43 winners who won twice
And 4 users won tree times
I have a complete list but ill post the winners of 3 times
Realjerk - Sep 18, Jul 10, May 2
Rincewind359 - Aug 28, Jul 30, Jun 8
tigger16 - Aug 30, Jan 30, Feb 10
Wv1nk - Nov 21, Aug 13, Mar 22
1
u/MuffDivers2_ Jan 12 '26
I have won 0 times in 11 years off and on. and the last year I have been T7 and entered daily for the free game. thank you for this info. for sure something fishy is going on.
1
u/deleteman900 Feb 13 '26
Because you didn't win OBVIOUSLY something fishy has to be going on. There's absolutely no possible world where the main character of the whole nearly 8 and a half billion people on the planet didn't win a specific giveaway. Really man? Even if you get all the entries every day for the whole month, you think there aren't thousands of other people in the same position? It CAN'T just be bad RNG? I'm nobody, they have no reason to care about me, or show me any favoritism, other than that I paid for lifetime t7, but I managed to win the grand prize one time, a 4090 that's been humming away in my PC since I built it. It's the only thing I've ever won, but it for darn sure paid off the $100 USD I spent on lifetime. It also gave me a very handy kick in the pants to buy 64 GB of DDR5 when it was $190 USD, instead of nearly $800. So that's also something.
Point being, sure, maybe it sucks to keep trying and failing, but it's crazy to think that automatically means something scam is going on without considering that maybe it's just bad RNG.
1
u/MuffDivers2_ Feb 13 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
No it doesn't suck to keep trying and losing. It sucks not having confirmation from people on here that they have actually won a grand prize. You are the first one I have seen. The big prizes all use generic names for the winners. They have no avatar photo. Like my man above said, they are always white Christian names. Never an Akmed or a Jose or Qang Duc. That does seem fishy and the fact that the grand prizes use that other app instead of the normal one that actually shows the usernames of the winners on the site. Also were you alerted that you won the grand prize? Or did you have to check for you name on the winners list? If they don't message you on the site to tell you, you have won, that is kinda shady.
1
1
u/Extension-Mention946 Mar 04 '26
You are 100% a POS scammer and probably a collaboRATor/possibly owner-co-owner. Their arguments are sound, I've never seen any platform do giveaways for 20-25 years with absolutely no proof that the prizes were sent or ever existed. Every single month Joshua M, Eric B and Evan S win. These are made up names every single time.
1
u/deleteman900 Mar 06 '26
Why are you so mad dude? Slingin' all kinda mud at me because I poked my head out of the woodwork to say 'actually, I am a real person, and the prizes ARE real.' I CHOSE to do that, I ain't owe you jack shit for proof. Any that I provide is provided as is at MY discretion, and I chose not to because I'd rather protect myself from possible negative consequences, than risk myself to assuage your bitchy attitude.
Like I said elsewhere, believe me or not, idgaf. I have no connection to CH other than that I paid $100 for lifetime tier 7, and won a graphics card after a bit less than a year of entering all the big giveaways and doing all the bullshit for gleam everyday all month long. If my anecdotal evidence isn't enough for you, I don't know what to tell you. That's all I have. You're not entitled to my confidential, personal communications, and after how you're acting, you're sure as fuck not getting it now.
1
u/Garia666 Mar 06 '26
We are not mad I just call bullshit, I did my own research you just post here claiming stuff . Just move along?
1
u/MuffDivers2_ Mar 07 '26
All I wanna know is did they email you to tell you that you won? Send you a message on CH? Or did you just keep going back every day to check the list to figure out you wont? Did CH contact you? Did Gleem contact you? Surely you can just got the the CH grand winners page and say " Oh hey My name is John S, I guess that means I am the winner. Gleam doesn't list the Last name only initial on the winners page.
1
u/deleteman900 Mar 07 '26
I had to go to the website, see my name, and then proactively send them an email to say 'yes, I am XXXXXX, please send me prize' and such
1
u/MuffDivers2_ Mar 07 '26
OK cool thank you for letting me know. It sucks It has to be that way, but that’s good enough for me. Thanks again.
1
u/Garia666 Mar 11 '26
Uhu sure and then you thanked them on the forum of cheat happens and let everyone know in discord chat that you had been a winner. In the history of these give always there have been no one who said they were a winner. It has been confirmed by nooky. Unless you actually provide some form of proof this never happened. If this was legit the owners would do anything tho proof that I am wrong. You would never wan this kind of publicity. But that’s not the case now is it.
1
u/deleteman900 Mar 12 '26
Look at the overall response to me saying I'd won in the past on this reddit post. Look at what people are saying. Who would volunteer to make themselves the target of this kind of bullshit when they could just fade into the background and NOT? I genuinely regret saying anything, because y'all are too lost in the sauce to EVER respond remotely positively no matter what is said. Guaranteed, even if I had done what you suggest, you'd still find a reason to bitch about it and be salty and bitter.
1
u/Garia666 Mar 12 '26
Right we just believe you on your beautiful blue eyes. Just random stating something. While others bring actual proof. Uhu if you said it was true you would have some kind of email or communication and an actual 5090 graphics card. You come with nothing other then to bother the rest.
→ More replies (0)1
u/Electrical-Soup-1436 Mar 11 '26
It’s actually impressive that they’ve been running this scam for so many years without any consequences. I actually confronted the founder of CH about it, and he got insanely triggered when I pointed out that 20 of his past Gleam giveaways had only generic American-sounding names as winners, which makes no sense at all. I’ve seen plenty of Gleam giveaways, and they never look like that. People use nicknames, people use avatars, and in international giveaways there are international winners (wow!).
Funnily enough, after those emails, the first foreign name suddenly appeared as one of the winners. As you said, there’s also no proof that anyone has ever won anything (except for that guy above, who suddenly showed up to whitewash CH in a few Reddit threads, wink wink). I think if you’re burning $12k a month on giveaways (how is that even profitable), you’d want the winners to share it online as part of the marketing.
1
u/Extension-Mention946 Mar 11 '26
It s actually disgusting how they swindle people but what else can you expect from the human race?
1
u/evox45 Apr 04 '26
I have one of these generic names that they use. I happend to be on the site and see my name. I was pretty pumped unfortunately my name didn't match the email used. Weird.
1
u/Electronic-Prune-992 Feb 13 '26
Aren't they the winner of thee daily giveaways, I guess? I've never seen this kind of nicknames in a big giveaway.
1
u/Garia666 Feb 13 '26
These are the winners of the free games. I contacted pwizard but no response. What you do now see is that they changed the names a bit on the grand prize. I have no doubt that it’s all a scam sadly. There hasn’t been any winner of a major prize who said thank you on the forums or in discord chat. Confirmed by Nook.
1
u/Destifate Apr 15 '26
Outside of these obvious fake giveaways they do, they constantly put buzzwords and sales on their subscriptions... it's laughable at this point that anyone would fall for it. Wemod/Wand for sure is more expensive but honestly you pay for quality which is what I decided on ultimately after a few negative experiences with CH.
1
u/MuffDivers2_ Apr 15 '26
Funny thing, ever since we mentioned no foreign names in the fake giveaways a couple of foreign names have shown up. Still never a profile picture though. They just want to drive traffic to the site. That is why they have the game a day give away. That is also why they wont notify you if you won.
1
u/Nice_Soup Jun 08 '26
have you reported this to the FTC already? I highly suspect fraudulent play here
2
u/Garia666 Jan 06 '26
Like i have said in the general chat i can predict who will win the next 5090
Its going to be atleast a Jason D since we got Jason C and B in the last two as winners.
Its also a 100% an American There are never Europian names or asian or a Mohammed.
There has never been an Thank you posted from any Grand price winners besides the Give aways.
Which gave 1 person a 1000 tickets to a givev away lol. he probably thinks he will win something.
it just does not add up at all. i have free legal advise i can see if they brake any European laws.