Is this Reader's Digest letter a scam?

Sounds fishy to me – I guess wait and see what these ‘instructions’ in the coming up letter will be.

Why would they contact you before you had won the contest?

If you respond, you are probably giving them permission to sell your name to mailing lists. They’ll make a pile of money doing that, your junk mail ratio will skyrocket and the chances of you actually winning are very small.

I get those all the time because I buy Reader’s Digest books. They are always selling something in that envelope as well. I sometimes fill them in, mostly not.

Don’t send money!

and don’t give your banking information

They send stuff like that all the time. They’re pretty up-front about saying that they do it because from time to time they offer to sell you stuff. Feel safe to send whatever they tell you to send.

It’s a contest come on.

i used to work at Reader’s Digest and that’s their typical sweepstake offer. Very official looking, makes people think they have a better chance if they buy something. they’ve been around for many years and they have no bad intentions, other than promoting stuff they send out hundreds of thousands of those types of things.

What’s that smell? it smells lot rotten fish. No, its not…its a gimmick letter from Readers Digest. best advice is to tear it into small pieces or shred it. this is the time of year(after Christmas) that all the scheme letters appear in the mail. they know you probably have overspent for Christmas and now need cash. i have received those type letters in the mail for past 15 years. be sure to read the small print at the bottom and on the reverse side. once you have read it, then shred it. give no personal information in a “come-on” letter like this.

Key word: ‘SHOULD’..... you become our Grand Prize Winner.

‘SHOULD” is not ’ YOU ARE’ our Grand Prize Winner. ;-)

Often wondered if these things are legit, why there is no media coverage of the winners. Seems fishy to me.

@BoBo1946 The prizes are not that large to merit media attention. They always send pictures of previous winners with the letters they sent.

I got the exact same letter yesterday in the mail. It is exactly as you mentioned with the green cheques and 2 envelopes (a yes one and a no) where if you say yes, you become an annual subscriber. I don’t know if it is true or not but it is very fishy (i think it said the deadline was feb 14 or something like that. Best thing to do is contact them and see if is legitamit.

take a look at this….very interesting:
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2009/how_not_to_win_500000/main.html

Thank you every one for your input and helpful replies!
@qwerty_snake very interesting indeed…. <Video link

Here is the updated link posted above:
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1353336766 Skip the first 1:15.