“Scratch and Match” Car Dealership Scam

Beware of the Scratch and Match scam

Desperate car dealerships have been sending “winning” Scratch and Match vouchers in the mail. The Scratch and Match game is a marketing scheme utilized by car dealerships across the United States. The Scratch and Match voucher will claim recipients won a a prize such as a TV, NFL tickets, a $500 Target gift card, Apple watch, $25,000 cash, or other. The voucher will usually arrive in the mail alongside advertisements, promotions, and coupons.

A target will receive the Scratch and Match voucher in the mail from a local car dealership. The Scratch and Match voucher has a key attached to it and an area to scratch to reveal a code. The voucher states that if your code matches the winning code you will win the grand prize of $25,000 or a new car; However, you did not actually win. Everyone who receives this game piece in the mail will have the winning number. This is a marketing scheme employed by various car dealerships that has been going on for many years.

The Scratch and Match game will state that winners must call the car dealership and supply them with a confirmation number, as well as visit the location to compare the confirmation code to the car dealership’s prize board. The game voucher claims that the prize board at your local car dealership will determine if you have won – not the actual game piece that already says that you won.

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The game also states that there is a 1:45,000 chance to win any prize they provide, but we are unable to find any reports of real Scratch and Match winners. We have noticed that car dealerships who utilize this tactic have many bad reviews by frustrated potentially customers who feel duped and lied to.

We spoke with several employees and ex-employees of certain car dealerships online who strongly suggest that this as a scam and deceptive marketing ploy. They described it as a deceptive marketing scheme used to acquire potential customers. The car dealerships that utilize this tactic want you to visit their location and sell you a car. In order to get you to do this you must visit the location with your game piece in hand.

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I would not go as far as most people to classify the Scratch and Match game as a “full-blown” scam, but I would say that it is a very unethical marketing technique and car dealerships who participate in this marketing scheme should be punished. Telling people that they won a large amount of cash when they did not is dishonest and unethical. It’s a terrible thing to do to people, and these bad car dealerships should be ashamed of themselves. If you receive these types of games in the mail in the future you may want to throw them away before you end up wasting your time visiting a dishonest and greedy car dealership. I also recommend to leave the car dealership a bad review online, on various websites like Yelp and Google, in order to put an end to this type of marketing scheme once and for all.