AG Curtis Hill files lawsuit over allegedly deceptive ads claiming recipients have won prizes

Attorney General Curtis Hill is pursuing legal action against yet another promotions company over allegations of deceptive advertising. Once again, the issue involves mailings that allegedly lead Hoosiers to falsely believe they have won valuable prizes.

In a civil lawsuit filed April 4 in Morgan County, Attorney General Hill alleges that Texas-based Hopkins and Raines Inc. sent mailings to 2.1 million Indiana consumers as part of 56 different promotions for car dealers in Indiana between March of 2016 and March of 2018.

The complaint alleges that all the mailings contained game pieces purporting to determine whether recipients had won prizes – which included such valuable items as vehicles, TVs or $1,000 in cash. Each mailing, however, contained identical game pieces with winning numbers. Thus, each mailing allegedly communicated to all recipients that they had won significant prizes when they had not. Recipients who went to dealerships to claim winnings were awarded “prizes” much less valuable than those advertised – typically such items as a $5 Walmart gift card, a scratch-off lottery ticket, a cheap MP3 player or a mail-in rebate coupon for $10 off the purchase of a turkey.

“Always be skeptical of anything that seems too good to be true,” Attorney General Hill said. “Typically, the announcement that ‘you’re a winner’ is merely a ploy to entice you to go listen to someone’s sales pitch. We want Hoosiers to be alert to all varieties of misleading advertising so they can avoid wasting their time or, even worse, getting talked into making ill-advised purchases.”

In the lawsuit, Attorney General Hill alleges that the true reason for the mailing was to lure recipients to events where they would be subjected to sales pitches for vehicles.

In addition to the alleged deceptive nature of the mailings, the Attorney General claims the mailings violated the Promotional Gifts and Contests Act in various ways. These allegedly include uniformly failing to identify the name and address of the promoter; failing to state the odds of winning each prize in the appropriate place and size; failing to include the verifiable retail value of each prize in the appropriate place and size; failing to include any disclosure that the recipients may be subjected to a sales pitch; and failing to properly identify the retail value of prizes.

Attorney General Hill has filed similar complaints within recent months against five other promotional firms. They are DBR Integrity Promotions Inc.; Dealer Direct Services Inc.; Prophecy Marketing; Traffic Jam Events LLC; and Xcel Media Group. To date, the Attorney General has obtained judgments against Traffic Jam Events LLC and Prophecy Marketing.

If you believe you have been the victim of any type of scam or attempted scam, the Office of the Attorney General can help. To file a complaint, go to indianaconsumer.com or call 1-800-382-5516.