Dealing with Competition Trolls/Bullies

impoze on 26/05/2020 - 13:13

Hi everyone,

This may seem like a strange one, but has anyone else ever been reported or trolled online for winning a competition?

I like many OzBargainers enter many competitions, not just for winning sake but also because the creative entry type can be quite fun and give myself and my wife a break.

Recently after a win, we have been sent multiple harassing messages about us, comments on posts, and even reporting us to other competitions that we have entered claiming we are 'professionals' and so on.

While I know that there will always be people like this, I just wanted to see if anyone had experienced a similar thing. There's no point in trying to retaliate or blocking as they just use fake accounts and make new ones as they go.

Thanks everyone!

General Discussion

Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 26/05/2020 - 13:34
    +11

    People are free to complain and make reports.

    Some forums are moderated. Many social media channels are not.

    If it doesn't change the outcome, let them bitch and moan.

    • impoze on 26/05/2020 - 14:55

      unfortunately, we've heard from a few other people that this can change the outcome and actually experienced it ourselves, where because of the false reports, the company chooses another entry.

  • brendanm on 26/05/2020 - 13:40
    +16

    Pretty sad state of affairs for the people whining about you winning a competition. They must be miserable.

  • Hithere on 26/05/2020 - 14:20

    Sore losers who are jealous of everyone who they think doesn't deserve a bit of good luck.

    Treat them with the contempt they deserve and ignore them.

    They'll crawl back under their bridges eventually.

  • pegaxs on 26/05/2020 - 14:24
    +1

    “So, what do you do for a job?”
    “I enter and win competitions… I’m a professional…”

    • impoze on 26/05/2020 - 14:58

      some people thought we were professional videographers/photographers which made it unfair…
      in fact, it's only my hobby 🤷‍♂️

  • impoze on 26/05/2020 - 14:34
    +1

    Yeah, unfortunately, it's easy to stay anonymous.

    We've talked to a few other compers who have had similar things happen so just wanted to see if anyone else in the OzB community had experienced it as well.

    Won't stop us from entering more competitions, if anything makes us try even more

  • kahn on 26/05/2020 - 14:51
    +4

    Aww, you just won my heart.

    • [Deactivated] on 26/05/2020 - 16:50
      +7

      Op's a professional heart-winner. Someone should report him.

  • tallkid123 on 26/05/2020 - 15:19
    +1

    I've been entering comps for 10 years and I've never experienced this behaviour.

    Even if someone targeted me, I'd ignore them completely as I won and that person didn't.

    General rule of thumb with comps is that if you publicly whinge or do something inappropriate, you'll never win.

    Also OP, what did you win and how did you enter?

    • impoze on 26/05/2020 - 15:58

      yeah, it's only recently that it's been happening more often.

      We generally enter creative entry style competitions so winning gift cards to various products.

      • tallkid123 on 26/05/2020 - 16:47
        +1

        They're just jealous then.

        Higher barrier to entry for these comps. Ignore them and keep entering (and winning).

  • [Deactivated] on 26/05/2020 - 17:29
    +3

    My wife is one of the 'luckiest' person I know. She's won lucky dips , meat trays, a drone, bags, a fully paid trip to New Zealand, my highly-coveted heart :p I don't know if she's been bullied per se but it has caused a lot of ruffled feathers . She is conscious of it and refuses to participate in any competition now. It's sad because I loved coming home to find all those parcels on our porch :/

    Some of the complaints/ criticisms that were made by the losers were:

    • She is pretty and has a "curated" instagram feed. Therefore companies want her to win so that she can feature their products on her feed.

    • She is a mathematician and can therefore "calculate the odds to win" which gives her an unfair advantage on others.

    • She has a graduate diploma in English and French literature therefore she is a professional poetess.🤨

    • She doesn't deserve to win because she is a vegetarian .That was after she won the 5th prize of a lucky draw which was a meat tray. We were indeed vegetarian at the time and she agreed that it should be redrawn. She then went on to win the first prize which was a trip to Sydney 😂 They then complained that it wasn't fair that she won first prize. The person who won the meat tray following the redraw demanded that she swapped with her and had a full-blown tanty.

    • The weirdest one was that she was a witch and used the dark arts to win my heart ( from someone who was stalking me) and to fall pregnant with twins ( from an acquaintance who couldn't conceive naturally)

    Most , if not all, of those complaints came from women.

    • Tee Rex Arms on 26/05/2020 - 17:38

      How do these people even know her IG and life story?

      • [Deactivated] on 26/05/2020 - 17:46
        +1

        Some of those competitions were on IG. Her instagram account had to be public to participate in them. They also stalked her facebook account and Linkedin. She uses her maiden name professionally which is an unusual one. It wasn't hard to track her down. She has since disabled both her facebook and IG.

        The meat tray/ trip to sydney one was at local club where we knew quite a few of the other patrons. We were sitting at the table for people with 'special dietary requirements' due to being vegetarians at the time.

        The witch one is because she is exotic-looking and is technically african. I also think that person may have gotten the name of my wife's home country mixed up with Madagascar.

        The baby one was from someone we knew at the time. A friend of sorts. When we announced we were having twins, she ran from the room in tears and hid in the toilet. Then came back later to tell my wife that she must be witch and that she had stolen her baby. We didn't even know that she was trying for a baby and had had a few miscarriages. Otherwise we wouldn't have been so insensitive :(

    • kahn on 26/05/2020 - 17:48
      +3

      Hell hath no fury like a woman losing a competition or jam jar.

      • [Deactivated] on 26/05/2020 - 17:54

        As if winning 1 "Jam Jar" isn't bad enough, she's won several jam jars… from those gift baskets:p

        • kahn on 26/05/2020 - 18:21
          +1

          I'm beginning to agree with that barren lady.

          • [Deactivated] on 26/05/2020 - 21:25

            @kahn: My sweet, beautiful wife was terribly allergic to our black cat.

  • Tee Rex Arms on 26/05/2020 - 17:37
    -4

    How many competition entries are we talking? If it’s some astronomical amount then yeah I’d say they’re onto something.

    • impoze on 26/05/2020 - 19:13

      not an insane amount, we have jobs and a kid to take care of so we are usually making an entry in our spare time on a Saturday when the kids asleep or occupied.

  • onetwothreefour on 26/05/2020 - 22:51

    I've never won anything so would love to win something big and make "the haters" jealous.

    • impoze on 26/05/2020 - 23:53
      +1

      even the small wins are worth celebrating

      Just start entering and you'll eventually get your first. We were so happy when our friends got their first win.

  • Moneyinthebank on 27/05/2020 - 15:37
    -1

    I was trolled from 1am to 6am and couldn't sleep because every time I blocked one of their accounts they made a new one.
    My phone kept binging in the middle of the night.
    Yes I know I should turn my phone off but I need it for my alarm.
    After a few mistakes on her behalf I found out who it was and I screenshot everything and sent it to her employer.
    I've had several messages of her saying she is going to tell the police on me.

    I don't know if what I did was wrong but she lost me a day's pay because I had to call in sick.

    Her last name rhymes with oh no.

    • Tee Rex Arms on 27/05/2020 - 17:38

      You sound just as bad as her

      • Moneyinthebank on 27/05/2020 - 18:48

        If I didn't do anything she probably would have continued
        Sick of trolls
        She was not the first troll I've come across
        Lots of sick mentally deranged people I've come across

        • Tee Rex Arms on 27/05/2020 - 20:08

          You sound like the common denominator

    • impoze on 27/05/2020 - 21:41

      hm, were they trolling you because of competition wins?

      • Moneyinthebank on 28/05/2020 - 13:20

        Yes every time they see my name they make a fake account and then write slander about me under the comp post

        It's getting to the point where they didn't even enter and they sabotage my entry because they get thrills from it

        • impoze on 28/05/2020 - 19:44

          can you DM me, your account isn't open for DM

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