About every week one or more people contact COMBAT about sweepstakes letters. Though federal regulations now require that these mailings more clearly outline what, if anything, you have “won” or may win, clever marketers are still doing everything they can to confuse consumers.

One of our clients in southern Maine is a good example. She received a $7,500 “check” and a letter reading: “This is an important letter regarding cash due you. Your name was entered into a national sweepstakes and you were designated to receive a bank check for up to $7,500 in cash. Your cash payment is unclaimed – according to rules, odds, etc., on reverse of check, you must contact us as soon as possible. Our strict disbursement procedures prohibit the release of the $7,500 grand prize unless you contact us promptly with the winning security code for these funds and verify your correct mailing address.

“Please remember that you will lose your guaranteed award check if you fail to respond. When you contact us, we will issue you a signed check in the correct amount of your award and rush it to you by USPS.”

The company gave our consumer a “Security Code check I.D. number” and a “900” telephone number to call as well as an address for mailed response.

The first red flag on this promotion should have been the letter itself.

Not many things in life, especially $7,500 checks, come without a price. Reading the fine print, “Consumer Forum” determined that calling the 900 number resulted in a seven-minute message with charges of $3.98 per minute.

The consumer went on to ask if she had really won $7,500.

A COMBAT mediation specialist found many complaints against the business in our files. We then wrote to the California-based sweepstakes organization telling it that our client had followed its instructions to the letter and on time.

We further told the company that when no cash prize arrived, our client had written it inquiring about her prize and though she had written two months before, she had not yet received her “guaranteed” prize or even a reply. We reminded the company that under California and Maine law, a company must send a prize when it has promised to do so.

Three weeks later we received a reply from the company stating, “The notice your client received was informing her that she had a guaranteed award starting from $1 up to $7,500. We have searched our records and confirm that we received her postcard. Our records indicate that her ID number was matched to the $1 cash award which has been processed. If she has not received her $1 award please notify us.”

There are several lessons to be learned by this example. If you receive such a letter, remember that federal law requires that this type of promotion must list a Consumer Disclosure. The disclosure must include, among other things, the odds of winning.

In this particular promotion the odds of winning $7,500 were 5 million to 1.

Read every word in a promotion, especially the fine print, and understand both the terms, expected telephone charges if you choose to call, and the odds. Then if you want to go through all this for a dollar, and probably wind up on a bunch of junk mailing lists as well, it’s your choice. Our suggestion? Put all such mailers out with your other recyclable trash. Then get on with life.

Consumer Forum is a collaborative effort of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast COMBAT. Send questions to Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, Maine 04402-1329. COMBAT is a nonprofit organization with annual dues of $10. For membership information, write to the above address.