SCAM/FAKE ALERT: Sleigh Is A Contest or A Big Fat Scam Company It’s Unclear
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9/9/24 Update: Still no response, seems they are offering these giveaways more, wonder if anyone ever gets anything, seems like lots of disappointed people in comments / reminds me of other scammy companies like Daily Goodie Box. It seems more like a contest now though but the fact they will not reveal “who” they are is a huge huge red flag.
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5/2/24 Update: They never responded. They are now offering a DIOR Addict Lip Glow Oil product which I would be skeptical of as well.
12/18/23 Update: I know this won’t make me popular but I think this is most definitely sketchy and very very likely to be a scam but it’s unclear if they are scamming Amazon as a company or scamming normal folks. It seems people are getting gifts according to their Facebook page and all of the gifts are via the Amazon gifting option as you can see from the photo below but they literally want nothing in return which is very suspicious. See more thoughts here on a great Reddit thread that explains the potential risks. Some of the key concerns from the Reddit thread are that they might be testing stolen credit cards or they are using the “code” they send you for third-party phone or address verification services like on Twitter or Google to create fake accounts. On the less serious side, this seems like they could be gaming Amazon algorithms and the merchants offering the free products are paying for sales volume to increase their favorability in the Amazon ranking algorithm. It’s unclear who is getting scammed but someone is here and overall they are a sketchy and non-transparent company from my email communications as seen below.
I emailed them to get more information (I could have been more respectful.. maybe next time my scam meter goes off..):
Can you explain more how your business model works? What benefit does your company get from sending gifts via the Amazon gifting function without anything in return?
Can you also address the concerns about third party address verification in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/175r4cu/sleighco/ – why do you need to send a code to an address?
Thanks for your help,
John
They responded by basically copy/pasting their FAQ, the scam section, which is concerning that is even needed on their website. I responded:
Thank you for your response. Can you share more information about the management team and what the team members do for “hard work” to be a bit more transparent?
Why aren’t you a non-profit if you aren’t making money or the goal isn’t to make money, can you please explain the reasoning for registering a for-profit corporation?
-John
They respond:
Hi John,
We hope you can understand that we’d like to keep our personal information as private as possible at the moment. We did not anticipate that buying free gifts for people would lead to people making all types of false accusations against us, and we’ve gotten some pretty unsettling messages from a few individuals. The positive response has been much more overwhelming, but still, we’re not comfortable at the moment to make our personal information public.
We’re currently focused on purchasing gifts for as many people as possible and we committed to paying out of pocket for as long as we can do so. We didn’t set this up as a non-profit because we wanted to keep our options open. At some point, we’d like to see if it’s possible to make this profitable because that would allow us to scale this way more than a non-profit and send way more gifts to everyone.
However, we will never choose to make money over doing right by Sleigh Members. We will never do things to violate the trust of Sleigh Members. We don’t even want to ask Sleigh Members to do anything besides receive their gift when we send it. The whole point of Sleigh is to spread joy. The only way we will be profitable in the future is if everyone wins. If that isn’t possible, we can look at switching this to a non-profit organization in the future and ask for donations.
-Team Sleigh
My response:
Thank you for the response. I have a real concern for my readers and I’m unfortunately going to mark you guys as a scam offer unless you can prove otherwise because I fail to take the “just trust us” argument when you won’t even reveal your personal information and yet you are asking thousands of people to reveal and validate their information which anyone can agree is a bit scammy, right?
How do you plan to be profitable in the future? Are you buying “sales volume” for Amazon merchants because of the incentivized review ban? Are you selling bulk accounts and having unsuspecting users validate them with these codes you send? My point is, where is the revenue/benefit to you when you say “the only way we will be profitable in the future is if everyone wins”? If you can’t or won’t explain, just like your personal information, I’m going to stand by the scam point with my readers.
I understand you might be taken back by these concerns, but there are a lot of scams out there that promise no strings attached and you are clearly benefiting somehow, whoever you are. The lack of transparency on “who” you are is a huge red flag in my book and you strongly checked that box in your last email response.
Do your best in your next response to try to alleviate these concerns, please.
Some more questions:
- While I understand the need for personal privacy, could you at least share the professional backgrounds or qualifications of your management team? This information could help in understanding the expertise behind Sleigh’s operations.
- You mentioned the possibility of making Sleigh profitable in the future. Could you elaborate on what strategies or business models you are considering to achieve profitability without compromising your mission of spreading joy?
- Regarding the gifts sent via Amazon, can you explain the rationale behind this approach? Are there any partnerships or agreements with Amazon or its merchants that influence this choice?
- Could you provide more details about your third-party address verification process? How does the company STAANP fit into your operations, and what guarantees do you have in place to ensure data privacy and security?
- Can you assure that the personal data collected from users is not used for any other purposes besides address verification and gift sending? Is there any oversight or audit process in place to ensure this?
- What are your long-term plans for Sleigh? How do you plan to scale up, and what impact would that have on your current way of operating?
-John (see that, I have a name!)
12/18/23: They have not responded. I will update if they ever respond but let’s mark this as a very likely scam for now.
I hope the email exchange was enlightening. Go ahead and sign up if you want but I don’t think I’ll be sending this code back to them now that I am thinking about this more personally. I have signed up for lots of services where you need a code and some will mail them to you. If you run a bot farm or are professional cyber criminal you are constantly needing to get these codes to keep creating new accounts. That is the only thing that makes sense to me unless they have a damn good explanation.
I have removed the links to sleigh.co and kept the old post below as reference only. Feel free to email me your thoughts if you agree or disagree!
-John ‘Samples’ Clark
Old post just for reference below: FREE DIOR Addict Lip Glow Oil & Mystery Gift from Sleigh
Want a mysterious free gift from a new company that’s full of surprises? Check out Sleigh! You can request this intriguing freebie by following the instructions below. This is a new company, might be a gimmick or not a real freebie, we shall see.
11/15/23 Update: They are having texting issues due to everyone signing up, check on their Facebook for the latest info too. Seems they are sending gifts via Amazon, unclear if they are asking for reviews or what the intention is behind this service. If anyone has more info please reach out. Some readers got something so far.
How to get your mysterious gift:
- Visit Sleigh’s website by clicking Get This Offer (External Website)
- Select a category and fill out the form with your information.
- Wait for a unique code to arrive in your mail after a week or two.
- Send a text message with the code to verify your request. Patience is key here, your gift will arrive at your doorstep later! Hopefully!
* US only. Additional terms & conditions may apply. Offer may change at any time. The company is quite secretive which is mildly sketchy, but if you’re into surprises, it’s certainly worth a shot!