Nooo dude what are you doing? If you're sponsored by Honey YOU GOTTA SHOUT THE COMMERCIAL BLUNTLY AS IF YOU'RE HALFWAY THROUGH A BOTTLE OF SCOTCH LIKE MR. BEAST.
Well, I would say that the magazines who published the contests are partially responsible because he was scamming people though them; thus, I would love to see a lawyer file some class action suits against the magazines! After he did this the first time, and the winners received nothing and complained to them, there's no possible way they didn't know what he was doing! So, I hope they get sued. But, for now, lets boycott the fuck out of all those magazines so they can feel the pain they helped to cause the people who were scammed. P.S., I don't believe you when you say he did it with good intentions ... several fucking times! Cause, I'm not retarded!
Like the vid but had to dislike due to honey advert. By using it you let it have full access to read all check out pages which makes it no longer secure.
@@thegatorhator6822 I told my husband about your comment, and he stared off into the distance then said "Did you know you can just put whatever you want on your own tombstone?"
That actually is regular light. He just has bright red skin. You know, because he’s a demon. Don’t act surprised. Look at that beautiful flowing black hair, that twirlably-evil mustache...
I'm an investigator by profession and like to research old internet mysteries like this. Turns out "Rick Lund" is a fake name. Same goes for the name of the company president or CEO in their business records, his wife. They used several different aliases and addresses. I was able to find them using the breadcrumbs they left a decade ago. In the mid 2000's, around the time these contests stopped, he moved on to what appears to be high risk/unsecured real estate lending.
Yea seen a comment about a Richard Sundvall... Haven't verified that but maybe if ur researching. The post said he started real estate business in 2017 i think
@@brandilee9834 whang posted a new video based on some info my brother and I came across... Richard (Rick) Lund finally paid out at least one person as of April 2021
Hint: bankruptcy fortress is a business model that takes losses that get subsidized and filing non-liquidation bankruptcy to retain assets while resetting debt and credit rating.
I’m pretty sure there’s a guy who does this exact thing with comic/gaming/anime conventions that start up, go bankrupt, and on to the next con. Literally and literally. The dude cheated Stan Lee out of his appearance fees in one case on his birthday a few years ago. Wish I could remember that fucker’s name...
Yeah I'm not buying it. I think this dude was just whole sale scamming and responding to a few random winners to cover his ass. That way when the mags asked for results he could have a paper trail of contest info. Cool vid man keep em coming
@@Chris-ci8vs He cant be THAT shit....The guy is obviously genius. He knows how to work the court system. Creates complex word puzzles. Moves cities often, and probably knows a good deal about banking and offshore accounts if he can claim bankruptcy so easily... His scam is quite unique, and pretty tame/inefficient tho. So he's not that smart... Lol
I think he was going for a Hanlon's Razor sort of idea with that hypothesis ("never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity") and, if it were a deliberate scam, it'd be an insanely inefficient one, and it would've made more sense to arbitrarily declare all the winning entries "disqualified" under some bizarre, insane troll logic interpretation of the boilerplate rules or something (but he can still say people "won" in that case, just that he didn't pay out because they "broke the rules"). So I do see where Whang is coming from. That said, it was functionally identical to a scam regardless of his intentions, so I have zero sympathy for Lund. If he wasn't malicious, he was dangerously reckless.
@@troncrash7912 A buddy of mine bought a "Slingback shooter" which was basically a high-powered slingshot back in the day. He immediately had it confiscated by one of the teachers who figured out that he bought it. Funny part is, the teacher got in a mild bit of trouble since he bought it with his own money and his mom didn't care. In the 90's/earlly 2000's they really didn't care.
True. It was the '80s. My parents dropped a friend and I off at the state fair. First thing we did was walk right up to one of the many knife booths and asked to see a small stiletto . Dude asked, "How old are you guys?" I said, "We're both ten." He said, "Good - You gotta' be 18 to buy a knife. Lucky for you guys, ten + ten equals twenty." First weapon I ever bought.
Imagine how many thousands of kids went on to round after round, paying in a couple of dollars each time before dropping out, or got to the final round and were immediately intimidated out of completion, as I was.
I remember seeing the giant speakers that were surrounded by video games and my mind ran wild. I would play out the scenario when I won in my head so many times. I also never entered,because my mother was smart and we didn't have the extra cash for that stuff. She would see that scam a mile away.
@Lassi Kinnunen That reminds me of when the pyramid scheme company "Wake Up Now" would claim that they were legit because they had Prepaid cards from Visa
Oh my God, I totally remember this contest from the 1990s, and swore I would win. Needless to say, I never won, but I became a skeptic at 15 years old back in 1996, when I told my friends that it has to be a scam since there isn't a shred of evidence that anyone has ever won. You'd think that a legitimate company would show pictures of past winners, especially when they've in business for years.
I actually did win a completely different small contest as a kid. There was this cartoon called *Life with Louie* based on comedian Louie Anderson. They ran a free contest to win a backpack filled with spaghetti-Os themed from the show. I figured “hey I could use that” there was no purchase necessary so all it would cost was a stamp. I was surprised to find out I won. I was teased relentlessly for the backpack as it was purple and had a cartoon buck toothed fat kid on it. I probably used it for a year before getting a new one. I wonder if that or the pasta shapes would be collectible these days. Either way this contest was advertised during the commercials of the show so I knew it wasn’t sketchy.
19:46 The fact Lund was able to keep it going so long could just be proof of the scam's genius - almost like a "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" sort of thing (apologies to anyone who went through hell with it - I once entered too, if that helps). But your theory also makes sense to me too, Whang.
I am curious if the Rick Lund that passed away in Minnesota is the same guy. "Completing his military career, Richard's fierce determination led him home to create and accomplish a group of successful businesses that ultimately provided employment and recreation for many people. " Very much sounds like a vaguely worded description of those contests.
I remember the Kool Aid Nintendo contest where, if I am remembering correctly, the winner would win "Every game Nintendo makes"... except that no one won. Also yes, I remember seeing these and remember thinking "Well this is a blatant scam."
These were geared towards kids because kids had no way of knowing and parents wanted their kids happy (in most cases). Sadly scams still happen and people still fall for them.
I never entered, but I remember seeing pandemonium’s contests in other magazines with other prizes. In the mid 90s I would also read Guitar World magazine and they would run the same puzzle contest only with instruments and equipment as prizes. Also in home theater magazines offering, tvs, receivers and Laserdisc players. Same company: Pandemonium Inc.
I remember seeing something like this in a magazine, but for a PS2, Xbox, and a GameCube. My mom wouldn’t let me enter because I already had a GameCube and PS2, as well as a Gameboy advanced, N64, and PS1. The definition of first world problems.
@@TheBBbandit it may also be to cover himself if he was ever challenged in a criminal case for fraud I guess-"look i honestly did intend on having a winner, dont give me jail time". Whether it would work or not is a whole different story of course lol
I was thinking the same thing, but I'm guessing maybe the contest told participants that if you could score X amount or higher you won. so the letter values were known to the entrant. It was up to you to find the right combo if letters that fit in the grid to score that high. This is totally a guess, just thought I'd throw my Whang in.
I played one of those out of game informer. It's a racket, they get more money out of the entrants than the rig costs. I made the quarterfinal, but I think anyone who enters does. The rules were convoluted as to what words were legal to use. Ultimately, the winner was some guy from Sweden who used middle English words like "ux" which the rules actually forbade, but the address listed for entrants never replied to complaint letters. And yes, the game informed one I played was indeed by Pandemonium.
getting more money out of the entrants than the rig costs isn't a scam, it's the entire business. and how all contests work. You're playing against the other contestants, not the company. the scam is if they don't pay the winners.
I entered this contest and made it to the "final round" twice. They actually sent out the "winning puzzle" each time, and both of them were absolutely insane.
Let me throw out another hypothesis. He tried to run it legit but got so few entries that he couldn’t cover the final cost of the prizes. Between offering too much and possible refunds from many players he couldn’t make it legit from the start. So, he ran it into the ground.
@@JosephQPublic my wife has worked or shithead idiot bad business gamblers before. They do shit like this. They think "one more contest and these idiot kids wont possibly win, i'll keep ALL the money, pay those crybaby losers from the last contest and get out RICH!!" but they never do becuase they're not businessmen, they're just bad gamblers. they keep dumping money back into the game and keep losing, more out o stupid than malice...
That’s my theory too. He’d have to cover his overheads - like the cost of advertising the contest, postal fees for sending out the subsequent rounds of the contest, and whatever his time or living costs were - as well as having enough to pay for the prizes, which obviously he didn’t have up front. He goes to all the trouble of actually running the contest and declaring a winner, only to find that he can’t pay out. So he declares bankruptcy, moves cities and tries again. I think on the second run, it actually does become a scam; he doesn’t intend to pay out, he figures he can live off the contest fees being mailed to him, and just goes through the motions of running the contest. Then he pulls his bankruptcy trick again and repeats.
19:26 Rick Lund wouldn't need to actually CHECK thousands of entries... he only needed to confirm the ones that claimed high enough scores to potentially win. He could ignore every entry that claimed an insufficient score.
So since nobody mentioned it, there were "puzzle scams" in Wrestling Magazine in the late 90s, and early 00s. You would have to pick series of wrestling moves and hope to win. That as well had an entry fee. I have to wonder if all of the other incarnations like this are also somehow related.
What's so crazy is, the guy could have just simply never told anyone they actually "won" and he probably would have gotten away with it for longer than he did. It was so complex, would anyone have taken the time to see if their score was actually the highest? Just an incredibly dumb scam.
@@stickman3214 I've seen that but I just feel like there's more to know after all this time. Surely theres some forum out there still talking about it and working on it
Gambling for kids? At my elementary school there was a thing called marble mania. The school would sell marbles and you could either set up a stack of marbles or try to knock down somebody’s stack of marbles with your own marbles. If you hit the marble stack you kept all of them but if you missed, then the owner of the marble stack kept your marbles
back in the 90s pepsi ran one of those upc codes points type contests, the biggest prize (for like 250,000 points) was a Harrier jet! someone figured out you could buy the points, and that the cost would be less than the value of the jet, so they bought it and pepsi couldnt actually follow through. they got sued and I think eventually had to pay out the value.
Overopinionated Az'hat what??? Haha that’s crazy a company like Pepsi would drop the ball on that one and not figure out how much it cost for a damn jet haha
I’m an attorney with experience with contest and gaming laws. Rick Lund’s contest and actions are very carefully crafted to keep himself out of jail while churning out the same scam over and over. He can’t delegate because it’s scam. I doubt he reads every entrant, I’m sure he has some kind of system in place to churn out just enough responses to meet the bare minimum legal requirements and have just enough of a paper trail.
Ad space in those magazines were super expensive. I remember making a comic book with a buddy back in the late 90's and trying to buy ad space for Wizard magazine. It was something like 800$ only for a 4 x 4 inch black and white ad. A whole page with color would be ridiculous cash.
OOoo! Oooo!!! This thing! I only once sent that magazine clipping thing! However i later learned that it was mostly a scam or something after watching the Doug episode about the crossword mail-in contest thingy. See "Doug's Mail Order Mania"
This wasn't just limited to video game magazines. The dude advertised in guitar magazines as well. It was exactly the same except instead of consumer electronics the hook was a couple of high-end guitars and racks of sweet-ass gear. It was an effective scam, the lure of it finally hooked me at point and I tried it. At the end of the day I was out about $20 total, and in hindsight I consider that a fair trade for the lesson I learned.
Ive heard about this contest for awhile, Im pretty sure Richard Harold aka "Rick Lund" Born 1945 aged 74 passed away June 3rd of this year in Minnesota.
Totally remembered these ads, but I was too busy saving up to purchase from other ads. Stuff like import games, nerdy/band tshirts, and back issues from Mile High Comics. Nostalgia. Great content Whang!
I saw these ads in video game magazines back in the day. I thought they were a scam then and didn't bother but thought "what if". The world sucks but whang is grand
At an early age, my parents instilled in me the gift that I would fail at every endeavor I partake in. Though I saw this advertisement many times, I never entered.
I was an avid EGM reader back in the day and eventually entered one of these contests during the 32-bit era. At the time, the prizes for the video game systems included a Saturn, a Playstation, an Atari Jaguar, I think a 3DO, and a Nintendo 64. The Nintendo 64 part was interesting because this was back before Nintendo began delaying the thing several times, so the N64 wasn't even out yet. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was advertised as the Ultra 64 in the ad. Alien Vs Predator for the Jaguar was the game shown on the TV in the ad. I got through the first couple rounds and actually somewhat enjoyed it simply for the puzzles. I was always very good at word jumbles so it was rather appealing to me. Then one day my mother found out I was mailing cash in a plain envelope and immediately made me stop. I was almost more disappointed about not getting more of the puzzles than the prospect of not winning. At the time, given the number of years I had seen these ads in magazines and how professional the ads looked, I couldn't understand why or how it could be a scam. Oh well. To be honest, the entire cost of entry to reach the finish would have been around or less than about $30 I think, which is a drop in the bucket compared to how much money I've wasted on other things throughout my life.
I always wanted to win this just to get that Neo Geo AES. I always wanted a Neo Geo AES, I know I can get a Neo Geo CD but its not a Neo Geo without the massive cartridges
Idk man... I may buy the whole "he's just a bad businessman" angle if it happened once, with a single company of his. However when it's something you've done over and over... it's a scam.
Y'know, out of all of the videos I've witnessed relaying horrific news, this one is by far the most soul crushing. Kind of end up seeing it a few times each month. 12 year old me is furious.
@Logan Stroganoff The authors will forever be unknown because of the circumstances the song was discovered, but the full version was recovered by a file hoarder from reddit who downloaded the full song back in 2007
From the players side this isn't gambling, (as loot boxes 100% are especially in game such as CS:GO where in game merchandise can translate to real world money.) As you've established it was a real skill based game, not a luck of the draw scenario. If a player who won got anything back more than they put it, then they technically won, even if it wasn't the ammount they thought they were going to get. The real person who was gambling in this situation was Rick Lund. The goal of any business is to make a profit. In the case of a game like this, you make a profit when enough people play that the entry fees exceed the cost of the prizes AND the cost of operation. By short changing the winners, Rick probably broke even, making enough of a living to keep the lights on and himself fed, but not really enough that his efforts didn't simply ammount to a 9 to 5 job. The stress and anxiety of continuing to operate this business couldn't have been easy. If it was just a job, why would he keep going if his life would be easier if he just stopped and got a job somewhere else? That's where the gambling came in. Rick was too invested in the game to quit. There was always a chance that the next month's contest would be the won that takes off, where every kid in america enters and he's able to deliver the goods and still walk away with a sizeable enough profit that he could reinvest in making the business better, but ultimately that never happened. It's sad really, had Rick not promised more than he could reasonably deliver, his business could have been a success. Instead of promising big extravagent packages he should have kept them smaller and more reasonable and sought to partner with specific retail outlets to potentially offset the cost of delivery by having winners pick up their merchandise at a place like Circuit City.
Repeatedly though? I wonder if anyone ever got all prizes due to them? If it was a failing business that's one thing but the name changes etc... Make it highly suspect. They say on here rick lund is a fake name and he is actually Richard Sundvall and is now into real estate. I have not confirmed that, just other posts.
i don't know how you do it, but I swear you're reading my mind with the content of your videos. I saw this thing peddled in every game magazine I bought, even when the technology started to look dated! anywho, great video!
I remember these contests. I wanted to enter one, and my parents said "no, that's definitely a scam". While they were right, I know they only said that because they thought video games were stupid.
Dont know if you covered this but i rember as kid seeing a contest in Nintendo power magazine and part of the prize was a walk on appearance in the mask 2.
Two Ultimate Warriors: ua-cam.com/video/j999byTq1Ew/v-deo.html
When this vid came I out I quoted Rick flair "woooo"
Nooo dude what are you doing? If you're sponsored by Honey YOU GOTTA SHOUT THE COMMERCIAL BLUNTLY AS IF YOU'RE HALFWAY THROUGH A BOTTLE OF SCOTCH LIKE MR. BEAST.
Well, I would say that the magazines who published the contests are partially responsible because he was scamming people though them; thus, I would love to see a lawyer file some class action suits against the magazines! After he did this the first time, and the winners received nothing and complained to them, there's no possible way they didn't know what he was doing! So, I hope they get sued. But, for now, lets boycott the fuck out of all those magazines so they can feel the pain they helped to cause the people who were scammed.
P.S., I don't believe you when you say he did it with good intentions ... several fucking times! Cause, I'm not retarded!
Like the vid but had to dislike due to honey advert. By using it you let it have full access to read all check out pages which makes it no longer secure.
after watching the video that contest reminded me of the way ponzi schemes work but in a different context then fake investments
Everyone knows if you throw an SNES above a stereo it multiplies both their power.
EckhartsLadder hey eckhart I just watched you're abeloth video I love you❤️🥳 awesome vid
nice
Kaiyyeleigh Akira *your
Omg love your channel!
I got one at launch and plugged it into my stereo. It was awesome!
20 years later:
Whang uploads:
'What happened to Whang? - Internet Mysteries'
ChaosWeeb he talks about how people believed he was kidnapped before revealing he just got a job as CEO and raised a family
Died of Auto-Erotic asphyxiation to hentai trap porn.
@@thegatorhator6822 I told my husband about your comment, and he stared off into the distance then said "Did you know you can just put whatever you want on your own tombstone?"
The gamer from mars
Jennie Seiber Your husband is a genius.
I probably would never recognize you in regular light.
He is in Rusty Cages video from vidcon. It's the hotdog one.
@@deadbrian9247 It was meant to be a joke...
@@corsaircarl9582 I know. I just thought incase you wanted a video with him in a brighter setting I'd point one out.
That actually is regular light. He just has bright red skin. You know, because he’s a demon.
Don’t act surprised. Look at that beautiful flowing black hair, that twirlably-evil mustache...
In bright light, he looks just like *wavywebsurf*
It's uncanny. They could be twins.
I'm an investigator by profession and like to research old internet mysteries like this. Turns out "Rick Lund" is a fake name. Same goes for the name of the company president or CEO in their business records, his wife. They used several different aliases and addresses. I was able to find them using the breadcrumbs they left a decade ago. In the mid 2000's, around the time these contests stopped, he moved on to what appears to be high risk/unsecured real estate lending.
Yea seen a comment about a Richard Sundvall... Haven't verified that but maybe if ur researching. The post said he started real estate business in 2017 i think
Great, so he not only scammed kids but contributed to the mortgage crisis lmao
Very cool work, thanks for sharing
Ever find out anything new?
@@brandilee9834 whang posted a new video based on some info my brother and I came across... Richard (Rick) Lund finally paid out at least one person as of April 2021
In a year, Whang will just a bright red spot on a dark blue background
Hello! I am here to praise you on your profile picture!
Smiles go for miles!
ItzHawk but your black
It like he took the hot cold lighting too literally
@@apeaked smiles glow in the dark...
lol just me or anyone get nerd city vibes? not sure who rocked the look first tbh
Hint: bankruptcy fortress is a business model that takes losses that get subsidized and filing non-liquidation bankruptcy to retain assets while resetting debt and credit rating.
1. Get money
2. Bankrupt
3. Keep money
Rinse and repeat?
I’m pretty sure there’s a guy who does this exact thing with comic/gaming/anime conventions that start up, go bankrupt, and on to the next con. Literally and literally. The dude cheated Stan Lee out of his appearance fees in one case on his birthday a few years ago. Wish I could remember that fucker’s name...
@@jsan2548 "Literally and literally"? What does that even mean?
@@superscatboy obviously he means it literally as well as *literally*
Because they’re Cons that’s also a cons.
I'm still pissed kix never sent me my flubber like 17 years ago.
they had robin williams hand delivering back orders but well.. you know the rest
I miss toys in my cereal
@@swandivemedia9249 that may be the best reply I have ever read on a comment 😂
I immediately thought you were talking about the band Kix, and not the breakfast cereal.
You too?
2:19 how did you know I was an avid reader of gay magazines???
Because you watch videos of Whang's. XD
Nice
@cavv0667 Nice.
@@cavv0667 Nice
@@youtuberobbedmeofmyname nice
Yeah I'm not buying it. I think this dude was just whole sale scamming and responding to a few random winners to cover his ass. That way when the mags asked for results he could have a paper trail of contest info. Cool vid man keep em coming
He could be a relatively shit scammer.
@@Chris-ci8vs He cant be THAT shit....The guy is obviously genius. He knows how to work the court system. Creates complex word puzzles. Moves cities often, and probably knows a good deal about banking and offshore accounts if he can claim bankruptcy so easily... His scam is quite unique, and pretty tame/inefficient tho. So he's not that smart... Lol
@@k-aw-teksleepysageuni8181 So you're saying he's a genius, but also not that smart?
I think he was going for a Hanlon's Razor sort of idea with that hypothesis ("never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity") and, if it were a deliberate scam, it'd be an insanely inefficient one, and it would've made more sense to arbitrarily declare all the winning entries "disqualified" under some bizarre, insane troll logic interpretation of the boilerplate rules or something (but he can still say people "won" in that case, just that he didn't pay out because they "broke the rules"). So I do see where Whang is coming from.
That said, it was functionally identical to a scam regardless of his intentions, so I have zero sympathy for Lund. If he wasn't malicious, he was dangerously reckless.
@@k-aw-teksleepysageuni8181 dude every time you open an envelope you get like 5 dollars in today's money.... not that inefficient.
Carnivals have been rigging games for years but the guy 2 booths down would sell ya a boot knife so even-stevens
I preferred the ninja stars.
I got a katana on a school trip once
@@troncrash7912 A buddy of mine bought a "Slingback shooter" which was basically a high-powered slingshot back in the day. He immediately had it confiscated by one of the teachers who figured out that he bought it. Funny part is, the teacher got in a mild bit of trouble since he bought it with his own money and his mom didn't care.
In the 90's/earlly 2000's they really didn't care.
True.
It was the '80s. My parents dropped a friend and I off at the state fair. First thing we did was walk right up to one of the many knife booths and asked to see a small stiletto . Dude asked, "How old are you guys?" I said, "We're both ten." He said, "Good - You gotta' be 18 to buy a knife. Lucky for you guys, ten + ten equals twenty."
First weapon I ever bought.
Most-Hated-Inc awesome. It was a wonderful time to be alive
I remember looking at that ad in amazement, good thing we were poor and didn’t have five buck to send in.
That hit me right in the soul. Same. Plus never being able to afford even the small Mighty Max sets.
Same.. and it always hurt, because I KNEW I would win.
Imagine how many thousands of kids went on to round after round, paying in a couple of dollars each time before dropping out, or got to the final round and were immediately intimidated out of completion, as I was.
I remember seeing the giant speakers that were surrounded by video games and my mind ran wild. I would play out the scenario when I won in my head so many times. I also never entered,because my mother was smart and we didn't have the extra cash for that stuff. She would see that scam a mile away.
@Lassi Kinnunen That reminds me of when the pyramid scheme company "Wake Up Now" would claim that they were legit because they had Prepaid cards from Visa
Subwoofer today sounds like furry slang.
thanks for implanting that into my mind
@@gooby8953 Sorry I couldn't be the only to suffer.
dude, that is brilliant. And horrible.
thanks I hate it
Domwoofer.
Oh my God, I totally remember this contest from the 1990s, and swore I would win. Needless to say, I never won, but I became a skeptic at 15 years old back in 1996, when I told my friends that it has to be a scam since there isn't a shred of evidence that anyone has ever won. You'd think that a legitimate company would show pictures of past winners, especially when they've in business for years.
I actually did win a completely different small contest as a kid. There was this cartoon called *Life with Louie* based on comedian Louie Anderson. They ran a free contest to win a backpack filled with spaghetti-Os themed from the show. I figured “hey I could use that” there was no purchase necessary so all it would cost was a stamp. I was surprised to find out I won. I was teased relentlessly for the backpack as it was purple and had a cartoon buck toothed fat kid on it. I probably used it for a year before getting a new one. I wonder if that or the pasta shapes would be collectible these days. Either way this contest was advertised during the commercials of the show so I knew it wasn’t sketchy.
Dude, I loved Life With Louie. We probably would have been buds.
Were they in cans? Otherwise, that would have been messy...
"Hey I could use that." 😂
Were any of the cans of the franks or meatballs variety, or only plain?
Someone would pay $1000 for that bag on eBay ...then Whang would make a video about it
Jason Pollywog that cartoon was awesome
So the game for the Ultimate Gaming Rig was rigged? Was it the Ultimate Gaming Rig?
@Jinxed Swashbuckler get in
Ultimately, yes.
Clearly, it was the Ultimately Rigged Game...
The game was rigged from the start.
You clever bastard
Whenever I watch Wangs videos talking about stuff in the 90s and 00s, I always wonder what those people are doing today.
Sounds like a job for WavyWebSurf.
phillip martin for real, but for better or worse I wonder...
WillTardis fishinggg for, fishieees!
Sometimes I reply to all the comments on GTA San Andreas videos from 2008 just to see who responds.
Not many do.
Playing games, having kids, enjoying life.
19:46 The fact Lund was able to keep it going so long could just be proof of the scam's genius - almost like a "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" sort of thing (apologies to anyone who went through hell with it - I once entered too, if that helps). But your theory also makes sense to me too, Whang.
Hell ya I totally remember this !!!!!Goddamn Whang you have killer content
Thanks!
Whang! 🤘
meanwhile the people not from the murrica's are all like:
WTF is this content
@@catnium Im from the UK and find all these stories really interesting
@Anti Jared i dont appreciate your username, sir
BRO THIS VID IS 2 YEARS OLD???? THE META
I am curious if the Rick Lund that passed away in Minnesota is the same guy.
"Completing his military career, Richard's fierce determination led him home to create and accomplish a group of successful businesses that ultimately provided employment and recreation for many people. "
Very much sounds like a vaguely worded description of those contests.
Thought Experiment Hold the fuck up, send sauce.
@@aldebaran2643 please update if anyone finds out more
Some people saying he is named "Richard Sundvall" and is linked to contests and is now doing real estate. Do not know veracity just saw post on it
Slowly the angle at which the camera is is increasing in every single video. I predict that by the next 15 uploads, the camera will be sideways.
I think AVGN didn't get it and then raged about it for the next nuclear month.
Oh please don't make me think of how awesome a crossover would be. That's not fair bro.
AVGN won, but it was just a giant rabbit turd in the box.
He received a rancid buffalo anus.
All he got was a copy of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Shit pickle!
Oh man. I remember entering this. Every one of your videos is like opening a time capsule. Love your channel dude.
I remember the Kool Aid Nintendo contest where, if I am remembering correctly, the winner would win "Every game Nintendo makes"... except that no one won.
Also yes, I remember seeing these and remember thinking "Well this is a blatant scam."
Sweet so i get the nintendo world cup game worth 30k
These were geared towards kids because kids had no way of knowing and parents wanted their kids happy (in most cases). Sadly scams still happen and people still fall for them.
I never entered, but I remember seeing pandemonium’s contests in other magazines with other prizes. In the mid 90s I would also read Guitar World magazine and they would run the same puzzle contest only with instruments and equipment as prizes. Also in home theater magazines offering, tvs, receivers and Laserdisc players. Same company: Pandemonium Inc.
Whang: This video is spon-
Me: **MASHES RIGHT ARROW KEY**
cmon man why are you like this
everyone knows that mashing L is quicker since it skips 10 seconds instead of 5 lmao
Oh no, this man is getting paid for his efforts in creative video making! What a inconvenience for us viewers!
Senior Sensi
I mean it is an inconvenience, and it literally doesn’t cost him anything if we skip past it.
@@eggsareeggs1904 Thanks
@@thebrutusmars right because tapping your screen or a button is such an inconvenience. If that's your only worry today, you got it pretty good.
The intro music... yep that's the stuff
Dude is just like Don Lepre. He just got too far in over his head.
out of his oooone bedroom apartment
Except this Rick Lund guy probably didn’t do the honorable thing and slash his own throat while in jail awaiting trial
I remember seeing something like this in a magazine, but for a PS2, Xbox, and a GameCube. My mom wouldn’t let me enter because I already had a GameCube and PS2, as well as a Gameboy advanced, N64, and PS1. The definition of first world problems.
So why wouldn't he just send everyone a letter saying they lost? Why would he even let the winners know that they won?
Too much work/money spent on postage
@@TheBBbandit it may also be to cover himself if he was ever challenged in a criminal case for fraud I guess-"look i honestly did intend on having a winner, dont give me jail time". Whether it would work or not is a whole different story of course lol
I wondered the same thing. And why even answer emails and the phone?
Because that would be a federal crime
I was thinking the same thing, but I'm guessing maybe the contest told participants that if you could score X amount or higher you won. so the letter values were known to the entrant. It was up to you to find the right combo if letters that fit in the grid to score that high. This is totally a guess, just thought I'd throw my Whang in.
I played one of those out of game informer. It's a racket, they get more money out of the entrants than the rig costs. I made the quarterfinal, but I think anyone who enters does. The rules were convoluted as to what words were legal to use. Ultimately, the winner was some guy from Sweden who used middle English words like "ux" which the rules actually forbade, but the address listed for entrants never replied to complaint letters. And yes, the game informed one I played was indeed by Pandemonium.
getting more money out of the entrants than the rig costs isn't a scam, it's the entire business. and how all contests work. You're playing against the other contestants, not the company. the scam is if they don't pay the winners.
Whang - solving one 90s mystery at a time!!! Love your shit bro!!!
EDIT: Wait, this took place in '04?
Went on for 15 yrs, started in the 90s
I entered this contest and made it to the "final round" twice. They actually sent out the "winning puzzle" each time, and both of them were absolutely insane.
Let me throw out another hypothesis. He tried to run it legit but got so few entries that he couldn’t cover the final cost of the prizes. Between offering too much and possible refunds from many players he couldn’t make it legit from the start. So, he ran it into the ground.
Sounds legit to declare bankruptcy you need to show proof of assets
Over and over and over again?
@@JosephQPublic my wife has worked or shithead idiot bad business gamblers before. They do shit like this. They think "one more contest and these idiot kids wont possibly win, i'll keep ALL the money, pay those crybaby losers from the last contest and get out RICH!!" but they never do becuase they're not businessmen, they're just bad gamblers. they keep dumping money back into the game and keep losing, more out o stupid than malice...
That’s my theory too. He’d have to cover his overheads - like the cost of advertising the contest, postal fees for sending out the subsequent rounds of the contest, and whatever his time or living costs were - as well as having enough to pay for the prizes, which obviously he didn’t have up front. He goes to all the trouble of actually running the contest and declaring a winner, only to find that he can’t pay out. So he declares bankruptcy, moves cities and tries again.
I think on the second run, it actually does become a scam; he doesn’t intend to pay out, he figures he can live off the contest fees being mailed to him, and just goes through the motions of running the contest. Then he pulls his bankruptcy trick again and repeats.
It’s a cool contest idea and an amazing way to run a contest, I really wish it wasn’t a scam. It seems like a great concept.
Haha! Glad I'm not the only one who remembered that episode of Doug! He fell for a contest scam that literally had the name Ponzi in it!
19:26 Rick Lund wouldn't need to actually CHECK thousands of entries... he only needed to confirm the ones that claimed high enough scores to potentially win. He could ignore every entry that claimed an insufficient score.
I remember those. I always wanted one, hell I wanted a set up like this up until 2010 lol.
I tried one of these contests from a heavy metal magazine. This one was for a guitar rig.
Blast Action how did it go?
I guess I didn't realize I was going to have to pay money into it each time. So when entry #3 came, I gave up on it.
Blast Action damn
Damn that sucks.
Man these 20 minutes flew by, I’m with you on the “in over his head” hypothesis
Someone:*wins*
Rick lund: *file bankruptcy card*
YESS! i remember this! being a 34 yr old obsessed GamePro magazine reader id always see wacky give aways and contests. PLZ do more like this!
So since nobody mentioned it, there were "puzzle scams" in Wrestling Magazine in the late 90s, and early 00s. You would have to pick series of wrestling moves and hope to win. That as well had an entry fee. I have to wonder if all of the other incarnations like this are also somehow related.
Wasn't this an episode of Doug?
Edit: Whang covered it
When I started watching this video and I was like hey this was on Doug... lol
What's so crazy is, the guy could have just simply never told anyone they actually "won" and he probably would have gotten away with it for longer than he did. It was so complex, would anyone have taken the time to see if their score was actually the highest? Just an incredibly dumb scam.
This makes me want a video about the PC game Treasure Quest and the 1 million dollar contest prize.
AVGN covers that in an episode.
damn hahaha always wondered what lucky dog won this stuff
Please do an update on the Cicada 3301 situation. I NEED to know more.
UA-camr "Lemmino" did a good video on Cicada 3301. From what I understand, the whole thing fizzled out long ago.
@@stickman3214 I've seen that but I just feel like there's more to know after all this time. Surely theres some forum out there still talking about it and working on it
@@RarelyTrollingGames Probably, but it's also probable that if nobody has made any announcements it's because there's nothing to announce.
@@superscatboy Yea, you're right. Theres no way to know if it has developed....
BUT! What if it has?
@@RarelyTrollingGamesI agree, it would be big news if it had. But the way I see it, it's not big news, so it hasn't.
Gambling for kids? At my elementary school there was a thing called marble mania. The school would sell marbles and you could either set up a stack of marbles or try to knock down somebody’s stack of marbles with your own marbles. If you hit the marble stack you kept all of them but if you missed, then the owner of the marble stack kept your marbles
I remember this contest in EGM in the 90s thanks for the trip down memory lane
@8:30, ah when the FF6 music drops, feels good man.
Did you do a video about the Pepsi-Points Harrier jet giveaway? I love that story.
Overopinionated Az'hat i second this cuz i dont know what it is lol
back in the 90s pepsi ran one of those upc codes points type contests, the biggest prize (for like 250,000 points) was a Harrier jet! someone figured out you could buy the points, and that the cost would be less than the value of the jet, so they bought it and pepsi couldnt actually follow through. they got sued and I think eventually had to pay out the value.
Overopinionated Az'hat what??? Haha that’s crazy a company like Pepsi would drop the ball on that one and not figure out how much it cost for a damn jet haha
heh, yeah ~ added to the fact it was a military jet fighter. :)
It had nothing to do with anything whang is interested in like the internet so why would he cover it? Have you ever seen his videos?
0:45 does anyone know this ost? It sounds so epic!
That golden saucer music....... nice touch
Soon to be known as the "surprise mechanic" theme.
You've got a good heart Whang. That was a very thoughtful conclusion you came to regarding rick lund.
Sounds like Rick Lund needs to make it so people can’t win twice
Yeah I was rather surprised that wasn't a rule. Though I guess if you don't plan on paying out(unless they fight for it) it doesn't matter.
I love how i get to learn things i've never heard of because of you! Keep doing what you're doing, Whang :)
For the one dude that "won" the crossword/spelling contest, he couldn't spell for shit.
Don't need to spell when you're copying words out of a dictionary.
@@antonyslaughter lol people who correct spelling all the time piss me off. They always act all high and mighty.
@@vlogress11c81 I mean, they're higher and mightier than those that can't spell.
I’m an attorney with experience with contest and gaming laws. Rick Lund’s contest and actions are very carefully crafted to keep himself out of jail while churning out the same scam over and over. He can’t delegate because it’s scam. I doubt he reads every entrant, I’m sure he has some kind of system in place to churn out just enough responses to meet the bare minimum legal requirements and have just enough of a paper trail.
Gambling for kids? Yongyea triggered
Jim Sterling was triggered a few hours before.
Shoutout tmartn
While sounding the complete opposite.
JHMBB2 ew yongyea
H3H3 now three weeks late to the party.
Ad space in those magazines were super expensive. I remember making a comic book with a buddy back in the late 90's and trying to buy ad space for Wizard magazine. It was something like 800$ only for a 4 x 4 inch black and white ad. A whole page with color would be ridiculous cash.
man it would be sweet if the winners all pooled what money they actually got from RIck Lund to sue him
In an era where UA-cam becomes increasingly more boring by the day, Whang stands tall, bottle of Kraken in hand, to save us. Thank you, sir.
OOoo! Oooo!!! This thing! I only once sent that magazine clipping thing! However i later learned that it was mostly a scam or something after watching the Doug episode about the crossword mail-in contest thingy. See "Doug's Mail Order Mania"
This wasn't just limited to video game magazines. The dude advertised in guitar magazines as well. It was exactly the same except instead of consumer electronics the hook was a couple of high-end guitars and racks of sweet-ass gear. It was an effective scam, the lure of it finally hooked me at point and I tried it. At the end of the day I was out about $20 total, and in hindsight I consider that a fair trade for the lesson I learned.
Scammer or bad businessman, either way, Lund sounds like the "Paul Heyman of gaming system contests".😂
The contrast just keeps getting higher.
Sat on my Sparco bucket seat bolted to my simracing rig, like, "I didnt win it, I built it!!"
Ive heard about this contest for awhile, Im pretty sure Richard Harold aka "Rick Lund" Born 1945 aged 74 passed away June 3rd of this year in Minnesota.
I remember this! Whang! thank you for another childhood memory invoking video!
Totally remembered these ads, but I was too busy saving up to purchase from other ads.
Stuff like import games, nerdy/band tshirts, and back issues from Mile High Comics. Nostalgia. Great content Whang!
Mile High Comics is in Denver, which is about 50 miles from where I live!
2:19 "If you were an avid reader of gay magazines" is what I heard... lmao
Okay Whang, I think you gotta do a full documentary on this.
I saw these ads in video game magazines back in the day. I thought they were a scam then and didn't bother but thought "what if". The world sucks but whang is grand
At an early age, my parents instilled in me the gift that I would fail at every endeavor I partake in. Though I saw this advertisement many times, I never entered.
I practically lived on the forums for cheapassgamer and digitpress around that time. I’m amazed I don’t remember this thread.
I remember this!!!!! You should do videos about people that have won big drawings like this. I swear no one ever won these drawings.
The Ultimate Gaming PC is no longer the Ultimate Gaming PC today.
I was an avid EGM reader back in the day and eventually entered one of these contests during the 32-bit era. At the time, the prizes for the video game systems included a Saturn, a Playstation, an Atari Jaguar, I think a 3DO, and a Nintendo 64. The Nintendo 64 part was interesting because this was back before Nintendo began delaying the thing several times, so the N64 wasn't even out yet. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was advertised as the Ultra 64 in the ad. Alien Vs Predator for the Jaguar was the game shown on the TV in the ad.
I got through the first couple rounds and actually somewhat enjoyed it simply for the puzzles. I was always very good at word jumbles so it was rather appealing to me. Then one day my mother found out I was mailing cash in a plain envelope and immediately made me stop. I was almost more disappointed about not getting more of the puzzles than the prospect of not winning. At the time, given the number of years I had seen these ads in magazines and how professional the ads looked, I couldn't understand why or how it could be a scam.
Oh well. To be honest, the entire cost of entry to reach the finish would have been around or less than about $30 I think, which is a drop in the bucket compared to how much money I've wasted on other things throughout my life.
I always wanted to win this just to get that Neo Geo AES. I always wanted a Neo Geo AES, I know I can get a Neo Geo CD but its not a Neo Geo without the massive cartridges
I clicked on this video expecting a PC with dual RTX 2080s or something.
Idk man... I may buy the whole "he's just a bad businessman" angle if it happened once, with a single company of his. However when it's something you've done over and over... it's a scam.
Y'know, out of all of the videos I've witnessed relaying horrific news, this one is by far the most soul crushing.
Kind of end up seeing it a few times each month.
12 year old me is furious.
i have my PC connected to my hifi stack, i grew up in the 90s and i LOVE my hifi setups.
I ADORE this channel with my entire being
Whang the mystery song has been found in 8 days, cheers!
Wha
Link?
Mike R. I second that.
@Logan Stroganoff The authors will forever be unknown because of the circumstances the song was discovered, but the full version was recovered by a file hoarder from reddit who downloaded the full song back in 2007
LINK
I think I want to build this gaming rig. I already have most of the consoles. Tracking down the sound system will probably be the hardest part.
Too bad these were just such scams. A televised sweet sixteen style play off for this would have paid for the prize alone.
Love all your vids but I have to say this is the first one to hit close to home for me. I drooled over that contest for years.
Holy shit I remember these adds in Tips & Tricks magazine
Lund is like a real-life Saul Goodman
From the players side this isn't gambling, (as loot boxes 100% are especially in game such as CS:GO where in game merchandise can translate to real world money.) As you've established it was a real skill based game, not a luck of the draw scenario. If a player who won got anything back more than they put it, then they technically won, even if it wasn't the ammount they thought they were going to get.
The real person who was gambling in this situation was Rick Lund. The goal of any business is to make a profit. In the case of a game like this, you make a profit when enough people play that the entry fees exceed the cost of the prizes AND the cost of operation. By short changing the winners, Rick probably broke even, making enough of a living to keep the lights on and himself fed, but not really enough that his efforts didn't simply ammount to a 9 to 5 job.
The stress and anxiety of continuing to operate this business couldn't have been easy. If it was just a job, why would he keep going if his life would be easier if he just stopped and got a job somewhere else? That's where the gambling came in. Rick was too invested in the game to quit. There was always a chance that the next month's contest would be the won that takes off, where every kid in america enters and he's able to deliver the goods and still walk away with a sizeable enough profit that he could reinvest in making the business better, but ultimately that never happened.
It's sad really, had Rick not promised more than he could reasonably deliver, his business could have been a success. Instead of promising big extravagent packages he should have kept them smaller and more reasonable and sought to partner with specific retail outlets to potentially offset the cost of delivery by having winners pick up their merchandise at a place like Circuit City.
Repeatedly though? I wonder if anyone ever got all prizes due to them? If it was a failing business that's one thing but the name changes etc... Make it highly suspect. They say on here rick lund is a fake name and he is actually Richard Sundvall and is now into real estate. I have not confirmed that, just other posts.
i don't know how you do it, but I swear you're reading my mind with the content of your videos. I saw this thing peddled in every game magazine I bought, even when the technology started to look dated! anywho, great video!
I think your theory makes sense in the beginning, but after a certain point he knows it's a scam and just keeps doing it anyway.
Im more suprised at how those magazines kept allowing them to run the scam ads in their magazines..Seems like they were just as guilty
I remember these contests. I wanted to enter one, and my parents said "no, that's definitely a scam".
While they were right, I know they only said that because they thought video games were stupid.
Dont know if you covered this but i rember as kid seeing a contest in Nintendo power magazine and part of the prize was a walk on appearance in the mask 2.
+vincent von holt I believe he covered this at one point. Not sure when.
@@JetWindTV yea i know it seems like i have seen this but it may be a Mandela effect
The last time I was this early, these jokes were funny.
That was pretty good
NaxNir
No it wasn’t
@@channel11121 it was pretty shit
Everybody get fucked ;)
They were funny at one point?
Your videos are nostalgia fuel and I love it.