Zaphod's Deepest Thoughts

Radio Contests Can Lead to Personal Information Disclosure.

There is this local radio station I enjoy very much, KTWO AM . I use them for my daily dose of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, plus Coast to Coast AM. Lately, they have been running a "Listener Fan Club" type contest thing, where if you enter certain words e-mailed to you, and said on the air, into their website, you can redeem these for prizes. Great, so I played the game for awhile, earned some points, and went to redeem them for a compact fluorescent light bulb.

SURPRISE! To claim it you had to fill out a IRS form W9, and give it to them.

Never before in the past had I need to fill out a W9 for promotional materials,

Now, as far as I knew, non-monetary prizes were not considered income unless the amount was extreme. But still, the thought of turning over my social security number to a radio station I am not employed by, just to claim a less than $1.00 (before store mark-up) compact fluorescent light bulb, sets off alarm bells. In this age of information theft, I am suspect of anyone reaching for my SSN without need.

I probably wouldn't mind as much if I had to send the W9 into the IRS myself, but leaving my SSN in the files of a non-related entity bothers me. As it stands now, I am not going to claim my prize due to this, and further, I am going to drop out of their "fan club" and send all further contacts to the trash in my e-mail. Sadly since there is no way to un-join the fan-club on the website, I will probably have to flag it as spam.

Now, before you freak out, I hold the Talent, DJs, newscasters, and even the station's GM, faultless. I do however suspect something fishy in the bean-counting department, or the middle/upper management. Your social security number just shouldn't be given out like this, nor should it be used for identification. Any business I can think of, would normally just write off such a small amount as the cost of doing business. I even have doubt the DJs know about this W9 silliness.

Even stranger, I am still going to listen to this station, because I like the people running it, and the content. However, in my opinion, they really need to be bought be a local benefactor, and given more control over their destiny... I do not believe the corporation holding title to KTWO has the best interests of the people of Wyoming at heart.

This article and content of this site in whole, is opinion covered under the 1st Amendment, and is not to be taken as an endorsement, nor detractment of any product or service.