If you’re wanting to make a ton of cash out of gullible people, setting up a shopping channel is no longer the way to go. Scaryduck takes a look at the newest craze, remarkably scammy quiz channels.
There’s a new one coming to Freeview called Quiz Call that appears to have the involvement of Channel 4. From the promo loop they’ve got there at the moment it looks absolutely horrid, cheap, nasty, whatever. But they are promising nice simple things like word grid puzzle type things.
More like Brainteaser, not the ridiculous “Mr and Mrs Pizza bought fifteen pizzas for their three children and ate sixty pizzas themselves. How many pizzas?” nonsense that you get on Big Game TV (which is currently plaguing the schedules of late night ITV2), where the answer appears to be some random number plucked from thin air.
“Yes, there are definitely 3276 pizzas there. Next question!”
I heard that this is nothing compared with what you get on Quiz TV though. Somehow I can’t quite believe that these channels aren’t illegal yet. Remember Ofcom catching AuctionWorld after goodness-knows-how-long (incidentally, a development that didn’t stop shopping channels from selling dodgy goods, but only made them get rid of ‘guide prices’).
Unfortunately I would be surprised if Quiz Call is the only quiz channel to end up on Freeview. The format is perfect for Freeview, because the 60p per second telephone calls provide the handy revenue that they miss out on by not being on a pay TV package. It used to be shopping channels. There are already four shopping channels on Freeview, and now we’re getting the quiz channels. Oh man!
Adam
23 August 2005 16:54
#1
I sometimes pass by Quiz TV and give it a couple of minutes before my head starts to ache, but I’ve NEVER seen anyone win anything. Ever. Also, one of Scooch presents on there… The horror!
Will
24 August 2005 09:10
#2
I don’t get Quiz TV but I caught the looped ad on Quiz Call last night and was suitably intrigued.
But then I’ve been on Brainteaser so that sort of puzzle appeals
Andrew
24 August 2005 15:22
#3
There are dozens of these things on Sky Digital. I don’t understand how they aren’t illegal either, because they are so obviously rigged. I’m convinced that most of the people who phone in are actually connected to the games in some way, and it’s oh so convienient how they never explain how they got the actual answer.
There’s also one called Bikini Beach where bored looking girls stand around talking absolute crap for hours on end. Dressed in bikinis, obviously. It’s the TV equivalent of the camgirl (aka webwhore).
chip
30 September 2005 04:38
#4
i seriously fucking hope that its not 60p a second for big game tv as stated at the beginning of this thread as i have to admit i was suckered in to phoning in with a solution to the Bobby Brick puzzle on 30 sept …obviously not being a member of the production crew i didnt get through but my “mate”said it was 60p a call !!!now i might have to watch it again just to check.
BTW did anyone work out how they got 1236?
mark
5 October 2005 01:36
#5
fuck you bastards bikini beach rules.. you obviously have not watched it for long enough the girls on there are genius
Andy
15 October 2005 01:43
#6
we rang quiz call the other nite and kept getting sorry you have not been successful this time please try again we kept trying for 38 minutes before we got through but had a wrong answer omg the next day bt rang us up to say we had made over 218 preuim rate phone calls at a cost of over £119 when we explained sometimes we got an engaged town we were told we were still being charged for it I think it is all a big con we had no idea of us being charged for a service that was not available something needs to be done about it and make it more fairer and quiz call should make it more clearer of the charges
if you look on there website they do not even have a email address to contact them on !
Surely sky freeview and ntl should be more responible and held to account
Andy
15 October 2005 01:44
#7
ban it
clare and debbie
21 October 2005 00:07
#8
we are sat watchin it now and its the biggest load of shite weve ever seen. we were suckered into it but never got through but she never seems to answer the fuckin phone. if we did win the jackpot wed need it to pay off the phone bill. and how annoying is she . i feel like smashin the fuckin telly . ban it for fucks sake.
Gregory
21 October 2005 00:51
#9
I sat for 3/4 hour last night watching quizcall. I was unable to leave, desperate to se what the answer was. The question was to add up
1) The number of x-factor judges
2) The number of days in a year
3) The sum 3 + 2 x 3
4) The numbers on your telephone
The answer was over 3000. No one got this, after 1 hour of trying, and the money rolled over to some ridiculously easy question. Then, as soon as everyone is eagerly entering the easy question, no-one is allowed on air for 20 minutes, while the presenter puts in an occasional comment and people waste their money.
It is a HUGE con.
Andy
21 October 2005 14:41
#10
I had to laugh the other day some bloke won 1 of the competions on quiz call and when the presenter asked what he was going to do with the winnings (200) he said pay the phone bill off lol you should of see the presenters face drop they dont like to here that it seems !
Andy
21 October 2005 14:52
#11
they say they do not do trick quizes and questions I think they do
simon
29 October 2005 21:19
#12
I think all as been said here about Quizcall its going down the panhole like Auction-world did.
I’m going to contact Channel 4 and inform them they are way out of line with this muck show, I’ll also report my current findings to Ofcom.
One evening Alex Kramer ask viewers to email in there jokes and she’ll read them out on air!! she obviously has not done her homework, neither has the student producer!!
The other evening she read out some emails from supposed viewers…Alex if you read this, their is no feckin email on quizcall so stop this bullshit ok!!
Last but not least it is quite apparent that many callers are fake…you will often hear the presenter say, for instance, presenter:- “whats your name”…caller:- “john”, presenter:-”and whats your answer john”…..caller:- “john”!!
This line of dialogue is repeated throughout the evening.
louise
31 October 2005 20:57
#13
quiz call is a load of shit they say you will get through i rang nearly all night and never got through n put it this way my dad where’nt to happy bout the phone bill!!!!!! lol oop’s
there is always more then one answer to most of the questions and the questions that are always on for more then 4hours they should tell you how to do them or how they worked the answer out.!!!
louise
31 October 2005 20:59
#14
and the jackpot games are impossable
tom mcsorley
5 November 2005 15:55
#15
Quizcall is totally fraudulent. The extended puzzles could have almost any answer and when the “correct” answer comes through they do not explain how it was arrived at. I have complained online to Ofcom but they warn that they do not investigate individual complaints but monitor the number of complaints. So please could anyone reading this make a complaint to Ofcom. We need to get this channel stopped. Many vulnerable people are being ripped off – that is having money stolen from them. Please act now. Thanks.
Alan
9 November 2005 17:28
#16
Saw quizcall the other night where it was guess how much money was in the picture. There were only notes (no coins) yet somehow the answer was more than £150 and less than £155 and the presenter only seemed to answer the phone every 5 minutes. Either nobody phones in, or lots of people phone in but never get to the studio.
Oliver Jones
25 November 2005 01:01
#17
Right – we can prove something is linked between channel four and quizcall.co.uk – go to any Whois search such as Nominent or someone reputable-find the whois on quizcall.co.uk – take note of the address – then do another search but on channel4.co.uk – you notice it’s the same address-how very strange. Hope this helps you guys. let me know
doctorvee
25 November 2005 14:21
#18
It’s not really a secret that Channel 4 and Quiz Call are linked. It’s just that they don’t really talk it up much. If you look on the Quiz Call website you’ll see that their address is the same as Channel 4′s. If you want to make a complaint about Quiz Call though, contacting Ofcom should be your best bet.
Spike
28 November 2005 09:17
#19
And guess which one of the blonde female presenters (the best one if you ask me, and worth watching on her own) has this in her CV:
“She also currently undertakes project work for Which?, a consumer magazine, in conjunction with the Consumer’s Association. She specialises in business and product research, often identifing particularly newsworthy areas worth investigation for the consumer’s benefit.”
So there she is, on the one hand conning us out of money, and on the other working for a consumer protection magazine.
Max
29 November 2005 22:32
#20
The best presenter is Liz – fabulous eyes, bit bossy, a real dominatrix fantasy woman! By the way guys I did get thru once (of about a dozen items) but my answer was wrong – yes one of those unfathomable “how many” quizes. I wouldn’y worry about this channel though, as a novelty it’s bit fun for a week, but can you really see it lasting? No No No!
MIKE
5 December 2005 00:01
#21
I THINK QUIZ CALL IS A GOOD CHANNLE AND TH ALEX KREMORE IS THE BEST DOES ANY ONE NOW WHEN SHE IS BACK MIKE
daoud
5 December 2005 17:58
#22
i think there is another kind of tricks behind quiz call program which is:if you r a first time caller u get through directly probably coz their system recognizes it is a new number calling.this is how it starts and from that time on you keep tryingand..charged.
Kate
10 December 2005 01:37
#23
Why can’t I ever get through to the show? it just seems to be a money making scam. I have rung many times knowing the correct answer and there has been nobody on the line to your presenter for a quite lengthy amout of time so I am spreading the word about this scam which can end up in gettin a very large phone bill.
Ken
13 December 2005 00:26
#24
Interesting comment two up from this one. My wife rang in and got through first time but then after that could never get through. Didn’t try too many other times, though, as we ran out of ways to work out how to get to the answer.
Nick
15 December 2005 23:10
#25
I’ve just watched a Quizcall puzzle featuring 5,10,15,20 and 25kg weights. Count the kg was the question. The answer wasn’t the sum of the visible weights (120kg), but 274kg. Where did that answer come from?
Paul
18 December 2005 13:13
#26
I got suckered by Quiz Call last night… Wasted money on calls (approx 40 – too easy with redial) and some 3.5 hours just to know what they deemed the correct answer (out of millions of potentially correct ones).
Of course no-one got it right and everyone was then invited to call in (yep they want more blood) for a pre 2am free-for-all on an answerable question… By this time they could of probably given away 450,000 not the measly 4,500 that it had grown to (from 1,500 when I first seen the quiz) and still made a fortune.
I cannot believe how alluring and scammy it is… It was some “txt it” quiz where you “Add all numbers together” on a mobile phone text message.
The message was similar to (memory recall)
PLS W8 10MINS
B4
XX
LOL
Anyway the answer was 10253…. yeah cool, they probably was counting in Martian numerals at base 69.
Total con, bad way for Freeview to be going.
Anyway I have had a moan to ofcom and can promise I will never watch or call again….
A total play on a trusting audience… lambs to the slaughter…
Cheers
Will
21 December 2005 13:38
#27
It’s an awful channel. A complete waste of a valuable Freeview licence.
doctorvee » 2005: Television
27 December 2005 23:24
#28
[...] And then there’s Channel 4’s other channel, QuizCall. I wrote about this earlier in the year, and that post has attracted almost two dozen angry people in the comments. For those of you who haven’t seen any of these scammy quiz channels, lucky you. But how have you avoided them? They are appearing everywhere! It’s not just on QuizCall. [...]
Alastair Smith
27 December 2005 23:36
#29
Quiz Call is a total con, scam and blatant rip-off!!
Anyone who has observed ‘Word Up’ and watched it for long enough should realise all the shenanigens going on behind the scenes. It’s very interesting. There is something very dodgy going on and I would urge people not to waste their money ringing up. Believe me, you will not get through. It’s worth watching the ‘Presenters’ performing. Each one has to keep waffling for ages and ages. It’s SO tacky and better still, cringeworthy. GREAT! but don’t get sucked in and decide to ring!!
Dave
30 December 2005 14:09
#30
Yes i too believe its a scam the hot button which makes calls
come through to the studio is supposed to be random.But is it? No as the studio can make it go off when they feel like.Also over christmas up till the 3rd jan 2006 they are giving away 1,000,000 (million £) by guessing a randomly generated 3 digit PIN which is changed ever day. What a complete scam and a con.. Currently there are at least 3 more quix type shows. Quizcall is ther only one that broadcasts for over 14 hrs a day
Bad news Man! Cheers
nick
31 December 2005 21:51
#31
Arghh… yes its a scam. I called 10 times (yes, i’m an idiot) and got ‘you phonecall has not been selected…’ recorded message. Yes I am an idiot.
Really annoying. And some guy with television feedback got through about five times! argghh!
I know its Love BITES but cant fecking get through.
Annoying!
DONT CALL IN. cant believe i got suckered and just thought the lines might be busy.
Nick
1 January 2006 03:52
#32
Echoing the previous nick…I too got suckered in to calling to identify madonna tracks…the only thing that saved me from running up a phone bill that would make brazil’s national debt seem like a minor fiscal inconvenience was my wife coming downstairs and saying”What are you playing at you drunken wanker…dont you know its a show for suckers!” God bless her….and death to quizcall…Just say NO!!
Phil
3 January 2006 15:12
#33
There was a hilarious convo between a ditsy presenter and a brain-dead chav (just wait til his parents get the phone bill!) on ITVs Quizmania recently.
You had to fill in the list of “crisp flavours”. Last flavour to be filled in on the board…
Contestant: “mustard” (mustard crisps????!’).
Presenter (even she was desperate to get the game over by this point): “erm, no… what goes with mustard?”
Contestant: “I don’t know”
Presenter: “It’s a meat”
Contestant: “I don’t know”
Presenter: “Think of an animal”
Contestant: “Cow?”
Presenter: “Erm… no… it’s got a curly tail”
Contestant: “A pig?”
Presenter: “Yes, but what meat comes from a pig and goes with mustard?”
Contestant: “Pork?”
Basically, by this time some wee is running down my leg and I’ve eaten half a pillow. Needless to say she more or less tells him to say “ham” just so that she could end the call. Quickly.
alex
4 January 2006 10:17
#34
Everyone this is hand on heart honesty. Me and my girlfriend see this channel andthought we knew an answer, we tryed getting through one night for god knows how long, to no answer. my mobile phone bill came through at 149 pound.
and i instantly swore it is a scam and never to touch it again.
then the other night not saying when just incase quizcall are reading. I tryed again just to quieten my gf down. on the word up game. and i got through. only to give the wrong answer. ok so ya can get through i thought. couple days later phone bill again 130 pound hence amount of times i must have phone my bill is usually 50-60 pound depending.
then a night later my gf said give it another go. im a sucker i know!! but to my amazment i got through again on a count the numbers and add them up game. which was so obviously a scam as i got through twice and both times gave the wrong answer. this game went on to about 130 30 mins before the shut down. i felt well mugged off i was constantly on the phone ringing and hanging up, even gettin a bloke message come on saying our computers show you have made a lot of calls please be aware etc… well artound 130 they changed the game to a simple count the triangles. i counted them and had the answer. I phoned like crazy, and two people got through both giving wrong answers on a puzzle that was simple. i was determined this is a scam and blatently set up. but i was determined and they started a 3.00 minute countdown i got through again with two minutes remaining and was on the line waiting for an answer. the timer run out 0.00 phone rung on screen gf muted the telly and i was greeted to a hello quizcall i got through. bam gave the answer ringing bells lardy dar i won. hand on heart honesty hear i won £5000 i was asked to do the jackpot thing where you work your way up i got the first one wrong so what im supposedly £5000 richer. i was put through to an operator who took my details and given a customer service number, i was told a cheque will arrive within 28 days. I will post when this arrives and cashes into my bank. serious i find it hard to believe it even nbow, which i why i thought id check this all out. yes the rate is high but in my case £450 for £5000 is not bad going. i dont work for quizcall channel 4 or anything to do with tele. im a graphic designer in buckinghamshire. if this money does come then this channel is wicked. i doubt i will ever get through again but so what….honestly i was as sceptical as you guys the words that where coming out my mouth when i was constantly gettin please try agin or a engaged where unbelievable but its all paid off now. ive never won anything in my life. so if this is true its my first. fingers crossed it comes.have you ever thought about maybe there isnt a email on the site because of the amount of hate mail they would get….
alex
4 January 2006 10:29
#35
further to my last comment dont think you can get through by ringing ten times, i must have rung 80 times in all on each seperate occassion
alex
4 January 2006 11:17
#36
and further again in relation to the right up above comment, I have tryed agin last night, i didnt bombard it with calls as i have before but i phoned quite a few times. just to see. i didnt get through once. i dont believe it is as random as it says
fiona
4 January 2006 15:53
#37
i like quiz call esp del boy he is the best
Mark
9 January 2006 04:27
#38
8/9 January 2006
Complete the familiar phrase
FLOWER _______
winning the £3000 prize after 3 hours….
after rejecting
FLOWER POT MEN no-no-no!
FLOWER OF SCOTLAND no-no-no!
FLOWER FARM – its so obvious!
er… BAN IT NOW!! (I’ll vote for the party that says it will ban it, please note my local Conservative MP)
Annie
15 January 2006 23:15
#39
OMG!!!!!! This channel messes with my head, what the hell is going on when its the “WORD UP” game??? For example now its the word DARK and obviously you have to think of a word that goes after that .. so far we have
£500 – comedy, £400 Ness, £300 (?) £250 Mood and so on. Only the £300 one is missing
There has been some great answers ie. horse. this is supposed to be a public survey so whats going on?? I know if I was approached in a shopping precinct if I could be bothered to answer and someone said to me what word comes after DARK, I really dont think Comedy would come in to mind or mood, I would think maybe, CHOCOLATE, AGE, even – NESS, which are there. Is is just me???????
Dave
17 January 2006 15:12
#40
To my horror there are even more of these dam Ch’s men and motors between 4pm and 6pm. ITV 1 has quiz mania early morning.Quix nite live on Ch 20 FTN thye have had a stupid puzzle on for 3 nights and no one has won the money it’s too bloddy hard: Nine multyply by six divide by two Add Nineteen ???? the clue is Add all the numbers and when some onee does win through sheer luck they never say how it’s worked out. Total con These Tv companies must be brought to task.Contact watchdog@bbc.co.uk. The only one I do watch (some times) is on ITV2 “play Suduko I never ring just play at home for fun. But all these Ch’s shoiuld be banned in the first place. Don’t get hooked on to these Channels. Cheers
Ken
21 January 2006 01:56
#41
Ha, ha, ha!! The dizzy blonde presenter tonight has a hearing problem. A contestant gave the answer as catch .. ment. She said it was correct and pulled off the top sticker which showed catch .. weight. later on someone gave the catchment answer again. This time she said it was correct and pulled off the right sticker. Lots of times she missed what the callers were saying.
sonya
30 January 2006 11:44
#42
I started watching FTN’s Quiz Nite Live last Tuesday (first time ever) and became rather hooked on working out the answer. I was amazed at how long it took callers to get through, I put it down to lack of viewers but to my dismay after ringing several times (MUG MUG MUG!) i discovered that the whole thing was a big sham. The phone line was either engaged or I was told that I hadnt been selected. There was a gap of about 7 minutes at one stage, where no calls were taken, yet I had been phoning all that time. The puzzle has still not been answered and cant be answered. One plus five minus six add twenty two divide by two. One person came up with 5 million!!!!!!!!!!! I just watch for amusement now, spending me evenings screaming at the presenters. lol.
stephen
8 February 2006 18:26
#43
I am apalled that tv is resorting to these ridiculous channels, BAN IT
Lee
11 February 2006 22:00
#44
GOOD EVENING EVERYONE!!!!!!!!
Meh, I have sky and right now its on ch 284
QUIZ CALL ROCKS! I’d pay 60p just to speak to speak to the fit female presenters, right now Alex is on ( pretty
) , but Zoe left at 9pm 
(well pretty) lol
Anyway I have been entering free on the web about 6 times this evening and i got the all back to hold the line once (even though i didnt get through)
Well you get 140 free enteries a day on the web
, so i dont think it is a con, you lot complaing are obviously forgetting they do need to get the money back for the puzzle (else quiz call will lose money) so yes it can take 10 minutes before the presenters answer the phone. And if you spend £100+ trying to get through then its your own fault, you should only phone a few times or use the web.
Well at the moment there is a puzzle which is 8 girls names beginning with C (Currently 4 have gone) these are Cordelia (£400) Colette (£100) Caroline (£50) and Catherine (£20) and yes the presenters try to help you cos Alex is giviving hints to the name Candy. So meh and Alex is about to answer the phone in the next minute.
Oh what a surprise the contestant just gave the name Candy and he won £150 (the presenters do try and help you) AND NO ITS NOT A RIP OFF, think there are many thousands of people phoning in.
I support Quiz Call, and if it gets taken off the air I will not be happy and I will vent my frsutraiojn right on these boards.
anon
22 February 2006 23:02
#45
I used to work for quiz call and I’d just like to say that they are laughing at you. When I worked there we would laugh at all the people who called, we would call them SMF’s (sad mo fo’s). The answers by the way are generated at random by a simple program. It will use numbers and letters that spell numbers and the amount of spaces and what font is being used. It is a total con. FYI, I was sacked for asking about an elderly customer who spent £260 trying to get through. They weren’t very happy. The presenters can’t believe that people would pay to guess an almost impossible answer. One made some disgusting jokes about black people. She is the devil incarnate. Yours eternally. Mr. E.
I have slightly edited this comment because it made accusations about a specific person — doctorvee
soozy
24 February 2006 01:59
#46
i totally agree with lee,quizcall is wicked,alex kramer and zo christien are both stunning!if some people havent got enough self control to stop phoning in its their problem but why should we lose out on our favourite babes because there makin complaints!p.s iv won ova £800 on it and i use the free web entry,thats wot its there 4!
rachel
24 February 2006 13:00
#47
I was a regular web entrant winner on Quizcall until they said they wouldnt accept no more entries from me due to them believing their data showed I was cheating in some way.
Couldn’t believe they were accusing me of this.
There was plenty of regular web winners,I used to hear them all the time but not so much now hmmmm.
banned
24 February 2006 18:54
#48
I can’t agree with the numerical answers being random. I know exactly how to solve the count the reds, count the eyes, kilos, pounds, etc puzzles. They DO use a definite formula for this sort of puzzle, although they do tweak it occasionally, and actually they get it wrong sometimes too. The problem is that when you do work out how to do these puzzles, and start winnning them, then you get asked not to play again. I’m £9,000 better off thanks to QuizCall, but they won’t let me play any more.
The problem I see with them now is that like the other channels, they are stopping the games where it is (eventually) possible to work out an answer in favour of pure guessing games – word up, etc. You have no hope of making a profit with these, as the answers are so obtuse as to be unbelievable. That’s when they actually let a caller through to answer… It’s not a game of skill any more, it’s a game of chance.
WHY
24 February 2006 19:09
#49
So for what reason did they ban you?
Lizzie Jones
24 February 2006 19:16
#50
Have to say Quiz Call rocks for me – yes I’ve phoned, yes I’ve used the web. I reckon at most I’ve spent £200 on phone calls over 6 months to them. The wins from them have paid for so much that I could never have afforded to do – they are amazing. Don’t knock it just because you were silly enough to spend too much on phone calls or because you have not been successful. For the hours spent the return is low but it is FREE money if you get web entries that are successful. The phrase nothing life comes free is true because you have to put the effort in to get the FREE money!!! I can spend literally hours in front of the laptop day after day after day trying to get a successful web entry, and then find I have three or four. I honestly believe they are randomly chosen and I for one think they are the best thing going.