Giveaways and Ethics: What Should Go Together Are Sometimes Questionable

As evidenced by Teen Parents United (uncensored) being placed on the Beware list because the owners themselves won a huge number of the prizes in a giveaway, ethics seem to have slipped by the wayside lately in some giveaways. I have been receiving many more complaints about somewhat shady giveaways: those where the owners have won, their family members/friends have won a number of the prizes, multiple people have won multiple prizes despite the large numbers who entered, etc. Because it is a controversial subject outside of the actual owners winning (which is automatic reason for being placed on the Beware list), I told the complainants I would cover it in a blog post and let everyone see it for themselves and people could form their own opinions. The first set of screenshots will be from a giveaway that Bowtiful Bowtique had that closed approximately 2 weeks ago and from the owner's personal friend list. The second set of screenshots will be from a giveaway that Penny Pinching Polly had in which winners were announced April 4th.

The complainant who sent in screenshots from the giveaway at Bowtiful Bowtique found it unethical that several of the owner's friends entered the giveaway and won (two of them won twice and there are two Kelly Dodds who won, but there are also two Kelly Dodds on the owner's friends list). The screenshots from the giveaway are followed by screenshots of the same winners on the owner's friends list.

These next screenshots are from the Ladies Easter Weekend In Giveaway that Penny Pinching Polly held. The complainant found it quite odd that with the large number of entrants (notice the number of entrants listed on each of the screenshots starting with the 4th one), there were still four people whose names were chosen twice.