to think that these Facebook raffle pages are a money-making con?

[OstentatiousBreastfeeder]

A few invites for these have popped up for me recently, has anyone else seen them?

Basically, people are setting up pages, buying a yankee candle (for example) for a tenner and inviting all their friends to buy enough raffle tickets at £1.50 a pop to make them a tidy profit, then they pick a name from a hat and the winner receives their prize - and they pocket the cash.

AIBU to think this is really cheeky?!

Cheeky yes but then if people want to buy the ticket for a chance to win it's just like any other raffle? Not got any of my friends doing it but will watch out for it now!

As I was typing that out I was thinking to myself, 'well if people want to buy the tickets then where's the harm...' but I think it's the fact people are willing to take their friends' money that seems really off to me, I guess. Maybe I am being unreasonable!

I think you'll find it is also illegal - I was on the P.A. and we had to renew our licence every year for raffles that are not drawn on the day ie. we could sell tickets for a few weeks before - I haven't seen any of these, but I agree YANBU

I've never seen this. I have seen craft raffles where people pay 2 pounds for a "dip" and if they are drawn then they win the craft. So someone knits a nice toy....beautifully done...or makes a cushion....five tickets for two quid....someone wins.

I haven't seen this but as long as the winner gets their prize it can't be a con, it's the same as any raffle surely? The people choose to buy the tickets.

I suppose you're right hoppus... but, but! They're taking their friends' money! And keeping it... it feels wrong. But it's just like any other raffle you're right.

Y'know if it was for charity I'd be first in line to buy a ticket to win a candle or something, but they're just pocketing it and making money from people. The page I was invited to had people buying three or four tickets hoping to win a Lego set for their child's Christmas present, money they won't be getting back when the organiser 'randomly' (in quotation marks because really, they can choose whoever the hell they want) picks a winner that may or may not be them.

Just seems really dodgy, and wrong! Though maybe it's just my area as nobody else seems to have seen them... Loads round here.

I will shut up now though 'cause I can't even work out whether I feel I'm being unreasonable

Some maybe. I run one and don't make a profit, nor do the girls I do it with. But I've also been in some (to play) where people are ripped off.

Say prize total is £30 (we incl postage) then tickets would be, for example, £2 and pick a number from 1-15.
On the odd occasion well make a little bit of money and put it in a kitty and then do a freebie.

I won a pram on a FB raffle!

I haven't seen this but as long as the winner gets their prize it can't be a con, it's the same as any raffle surely?

It's not a con, necessarily, although I'd also question the legality since you can't just run random raffles without a license. However, it certainly has the potential to be a nice little earner and I can't see why anyone would run this sort of raffle without intending to make a profit. So unless it was for charity I'd run a mile.

See the ones I've seen run enough numbers and price them so they're blatantly making at least double what they paid for the prize. I worked out that the candle raffle (worth £15) generated around £40 in ticket sales. That's a pretty nice profit.

A group I was on had a raffle with about £400 of tickets and the winner got a £150 hoover. Shortly after there was a raffle for an iPad that the winner never received and she closed down her page and reopened with a new name.

I used to be on one and won: Kath Kidston bag, a toy and an iPad 2. They sold tickets to the value of the item, included the link and filmed themselves using a random number generator...... It was just some friends who started it for fun I think

As Robot said above, they're illegal.

www.raffle.co.uk/legal-requirements/