TacoBellContest, When Is It Over, When Is The Drawing, How Will We Know If We've Won?

**DOOM** · 10-28-2001

THANKS!

**sinizuh** · 10-28-2001

well... i dunno, but don't you have to register your numbers online? and then wouldn't they annouce the winning accounts/numbers?

**RedFive** · 10-29-2001

I've been following the Taco Bell / XBOX contest very closely over the last ten days since Taco Bell is my favorite fast food joint and the XBOX is my favorite contender for the best future-gen console. Here's what I know... these just might be the answers you're looking for.

The official Taco Bell / XBOX Sweepstakes website can be found here. Within this site, you can find all the info you'd ever want on the contest -- mostly in the official rules.

The contest officially ended yesterday -- Sunday, October 28th (whenever the Taco Bell in your area closed today). However, if you still have entry tickets, you can keep entering them in on the website until 11:59pm today -- Monday, October 29th.

According to the official rules, the drawing for each of the XBOX consoles to be given away will be held on November 4, 2001 in St. Louis, MO by SJI Fulfillment, Inc -- the company handling the sweepstakes for Microsoft and Taco Bell.

There is to be one winner from each Taco Bell location that's participating in the sweepstakes (except for Hawaii and Puerto Rico -- one XBOX will be given away in each territory). The plan is to notify each winner by mail, unless you're chosen as a publicity winner, in which case they'll call and/or email you to let you know you've won and deliver your XBOX to you personally. I'm assuming they'll use your ugly mug on future XBOX / Taco Bell promos too.

Now, I'm hoping that I win just as much as all of you that entered, but if by some unfortunate event you don't, here's the info on how to get a winner's list, so you can go beat up that kid in your town who *did* win an XBOX.

Quote from the official rules:
"For a list of winners from all participating stores, mail a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: "Win It Before You Can Buy It" Xbox™ Giveaway, P.O. Box 78846, St. Louis, MO 63178-8846. Requests must be received by January 15, 2002. Winners list will only be mailed after prizes have been awarded."

Best of luck to you all! If you do happen to win, please post and let us know how it's all going to go down (you receiving your XBOX, that is).

*RedFive clutches his 31 entry tickets and prays for good luck...*

**MensurB** · 10-29-2001

I'm not even going to try the contest, I've never won anything...

**MadMoose** · 10-30-2001

I entered the contes lots and lots, i didnt know when the drawing was either so thanks RedFive.i hope i win!!!i entered at our small town taco bell, so less people will have registered (i hope) and myabe i will havea better chance of winning!

**Marc** · 10-31-2001

I entered several times at three different taco bells. I tried to enter at a fourth on Sunday, but the manager had quit giving out the coupons. That place was run down anyway. I might have gotten botulism if I had eaten there.I have a little envelope with all my tickets in it. I was hoping a lot of people would forget to enter online. Here's hoping..........

**RedFive** · 10-31-2001

Earlier this evening, much to my shocking surprise, I received the following email from "news@xbox.com":

"Congratulations! You Won!

Congratulations! You are one of over 6500 xbox winners!

One of the winning tickets was registered under this email address. Each and every winner will receive one (1) Xbox video game console from Microsoft and one (1) copy of Project Gotham Racing. Just sit tight because all winners will be officially notified by US mail and asked to submit a background check for publicity purposes. If you choose not to submit a background check, don't worry, you'll still get your prize!"

The actual email is in HTML format, not plain text and looks exactly like the xbox.com website. It also includes links to xbox.com and some game reviews.

Can you believe my luck!? I won an XBOX!

* RedFive jumps around the room some more. *

I think I have to go lie down now.

**RedFive** · 10-31-2001

Did anyone else get the same email?

I hope someone else is having as wonderful a night as me...

**Rancey** · 10-31-2001

Are you serious man? That is great! When do you get it? Darn you are lucky

**Rancey** · 10-31-2001

Now, I'm hoping that I win just as much as all of you that entered, but if by some unfortunate event you don't, here's the info on how to get a winner's list, so you can go beat up that kid in your town who *did* win an XBOX.

So where did you live again?

**RedFive** · 10-31-2001

So where did you live again?

*chuckle*

Over... here.

Yeah, I'm totally serious! And totally stoked about my new XBOX. I can't wait to get my hands on this thing. I guess I'm glad I hadn't pre-ordered one yet...

The strange thing is that the official rules said that the drawing was going to be on Nov. 4th, yet I got the email saying I'd won tonight. But I don't have any reason to believe that I didn't win -- the email looks totally valid and is from "news@xbox.com". I'm hoping someone else on here won as well, so they can prove me right!

Any suggestions as to the first game I should purchase to go along with Project Gotham?

=w= RedFive =w=

**cracchus** · 10-31-2001

Be careful re. that email. At teamxbox, someone received something similar, got very excited, and then it turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by a member who thought he was being funny. Check over at txb, a thread called "I think I just won an Xbox!" or something like that. Sorry to disappoint you, but you may be the victim of a hoax.

**RedFive** · 10-31-2001

I have determined -- for certain -- that the email that I and others received last night was indeed a hoax perpetrated by two or more people. These people are members of several XBOX-related fan or info sites and their respective forums.

After seeing the threads on the Team XBOX and ignXBOX forums, I decided to investigate the email I received a little closer. After checking the full headers of the email message, I learned that the message was not in fact sent by Microsoft or anyone affiliated with Microsoft.

Take a look at some of the info from the full header:

Received: from [199.170.121.20] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id MHotMailBDA8F59A00384136E811C7AA7914BB610; Tue, 30 Oct 2001 23:39:06 -0800
Received: from pop.crestviewcable.com ([65.113.239.181]) by atl7.america.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with SMTP id f9V7d1n22572 for redfive99@hotmail.com; Wed, 31 Oct 2001 02:39:02 -0500 (EST)
From news@xbox.com Tue, 30 Oct 2001 23:40:21 -0800
Message-Id: <200110310739.f9V7d1n22572@atl7.america.net>
X-Mailer: Ghost Mail 5.1 http://ay.home.ml.org/
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)

Take note of the "Received:", "From:" and "X-Mailer:" lines. Whoever was sending this used a "Ghost Mailer" that faked the "news@xbox.com" email address. The email was actually sent from pop.crestviewcable.com which if you go to www.crestviewcable.com you'll see is an ISP in Oregon. The shameful person who sent me this email is in Oregon.

Our perpetrator faked the "From:" info by using a Ghost Mailer to send the email. He made it from "news@xbox.com" to sound more official.

This was a very cruel and unfunny thing to do. I had already told my little brother that I was getting an XBOX and he was so excited... now I have to tell him it's not going to happen. So if you're reading this, whoever you are, please know that toying with people might be funny for you, but it's definately not funny for the person or people getting messed with. I wish you had to see the look on his face when I tell him the XBOX is not coming.

**RedFive** · 10-31-2001

Another note...

After finding out that it was a hoax, I decided to give 1-800-4MYXBOX a call and find out if they knew about it. The wait time was pleasantly short on hold ... in fact it was almost nothing. I spoke to a CSR named Tom who told me that he hadn't heard about the fraud yet, but was glad to get the info on it. Also -- he gave me one important piece of information:

The winners of the Taco Bell / XBOX "Win It Before You Can Buy It" promo are to be posted tomorrow, November 1st, at www.xbox.com/tacobell.

Just something to keep in mind...

=w= RedFive =w=