Chadds Ford in T-Mobile Giveaway: The Luckiest Town in America

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T-Mobile contest Chadds Ford
Image via Matthew Hurst, Creative Commons.

When the results of an ongoing T-Mobile promotional contest started leaning heavily in favor of players from Chadds Ford, it raised eyebrows. Curiosity about the probability of this outcome eventually led to an online investigation, writes Dr. Augustine Fou for Forbes.

It did not take long to uncover that the game was being gamed by a hacker using bots. These software programs help with automating tasks, including contest entries.

A Chadds Ford player programmed a bot to complete multiple entry forms for T-Mobile’s sweepstakes. Like Mickey Mouse’s Fantasia brooms, thousands of entries marched forth mindlessly from Chadds Ford into the contest. The bots were even able to bypass the CAPTCHA technology on the webpage.

The hacker, however, used the same address on all entries, directing the winnings to one Chadds Ford location.

Randomization would have hidden the ruse. But the computer expert never thought that through.

The T-Mobile website listed each winner and his or her town. The gig was up:

Chadds Ford

Chadds Ford

Chadds Ford

T-Mobile quickly saw something was amiss. The odds didn’t support so many winners from a town so small.

T-Mobile has since updated its rules to mark any automated entry ineligible to win. It’s monitoring entries a little more diligently now.

Read more about bots in Forbes.

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