I had to register to post this, but I couldnt find any other information about this competition on the net and I had to warn people somewhere. If you go to the url Photography Competition you have to pay $5 to enter, easy i thought, the prize money looks good and it says if you get a place you get published in Better Photography magazine. Well if their name is on it it has to be ok right? WRONG!

i got third place and after several emails asking for my prize money, I kept getting a reply saying oh, it takes a couple weeks to process, oh we just moved. Well its been months and months and after emailing better photography only to find they have no affiliation with them, I relized its some kind of scam

just a heads up, cause it does seem reputable...

Hey, thanks for the warning, I appreciate it. It sucks about the photocomp scam.

That really sucks sn_au - especially as you paid to enter too - Thanks for letting us know

Hi,

My name is Efraim and I am the owner and administrator of Photography Competition

Firstly I would like to say that this site is in no way a scam. This person posting this absolute rubbish has been paid their prize money. It is hurtful that such people do not have any faith and will post such things as to dis credit someones very hard work. Prize money for all competitions are paid in due course as stated in the terms and conditions of entry.

In regards to the publishing of winners in Better Photography Magazine this was removed from the site only a few weeks after we started due to Better Photography's request. We have posted the 1st place winners of competitions 5, 6 and 7 in (Australian Netguide Magazine Oct 2008 Edition Page 13) and will post all winners in a magazine of our choice once a year.

Regards
Efraim Silver
Photocomp

Hi To ALL,
I am the 2nd Prize Winner in Emotion Category in Competition-6 and 1st Prize winner in Black and white category of competition no-7. I got first mail from Efraim on Jul 2, 2008 7:31 AM

Hi Partha,

Congratulations on winning 2nd prize in the competition 6 – Emotion with your photo titled “Hope”. You can view the judge’s comments by going to the link http://www.photocomp.com.au/Winners.aspx

Please provide me with your bank details as well as your address so that we can send you out your certificate. Please note that the prize money will be transferred to you within 4 – 6 weeks from today.

Again congratulations

Regards
Efraim Silver and the Photocomp Team

As she required I give every details but after not getting any reply I again mailed her on Aug 12, 2008 1:24 PM

Hi Efraim,

Hope You get every details regarding delivery of your payment for choosing me the 2nd prize winner in your emotion category of PHOTOCOMP.
Almost 5 weeks had gone you mailed me regarding the award still no response from your side.
It will be much kind to me if you give the information regarding payment and the present status of it.
Have you got any problem regarding payment.
Expecting prompt reply .
Thanking you
Regards.
Partha

This time I got a reply from her on Aug 20, 2008 6:41 AM and received two cetificates regading the 1st prize in B&W and Emootion category, nothing more.

Hi Partha,

Sorry for the late reply. We are just waiting on funds to clear and expect to pay the prizes by Monday the latest. I will keep you informed on when it has been paid. Thank you for your patience.

Regards
Efraim

This is the last mail I had received from her.....

Despite of several remainder mail I did not get any answer yet.

I comete in photocomp by giving $10 but still no prioze money had come.
Still We canont call it a Spam?

I have all e mail records with me and noting to hide about.

Can Efraim show the evidence that she had send me the prize money?
probably not.

I had already made contact with Mr Arup Ghosh, the 1st prize winner in competitio- 1 and he shares the same view that He had not received the prize yet.

Partha

Hi all,
My name is Harjono Djoyobisono. I won the 3rd place in the black & white category. I got the certificate, but the money has not been send to me.

I got the first email from Efraim on th 20th Aug 2008:

Dear Harjono,
Congratulations to the winners of Competition 7.
The winners have been announce and congratulations to Partha Pal for 1st place, Jacob Jozwiak for 2nd place and Harjono Djoyobisono for 3rd place. You can see the judges comments by pointing your browser to www.photocomp.com.au/Winners.aspx

I replied his email on the 30th Oct 2008:

Dear The PhotoComp team,

I won the third prize from the 7th session (Black & White theme).
The certificate arrived safely to my address. I wonder what happened with the money prize (AU$ 100.00) since I have not been received it yet. Did you delivered the prize yet? You may have the best confinience way to do it. However, I have National Australia Bank (NAB) account and PayPal account.

Thanks in advance
--
Dr. Harjono Djoyobisono


Someone (named Sam) replied my email using her email account on the 3rd Nov 2008:

Hi Harjono, Efraim got stuck overseas and he will be back on the weekend he will process the prizes early next week. He apologizes for the inconvenience.

Regards

Sam

Efraim sent me an email on the 11th Nov 2008:

Hi Harjono,

Can you please send me both the nab and paypal account details.

Regards
Efraim


I sent an email to Efraim on the 11th Nov 2008:
Dear Efraim,

My NAB account details is BSB 083 457 Account No. 55821 9XXX
Paypal account is XXXXX


Best regards,
--
Dr. Harjono Djoyobisono


No money has been sent to my bank or PayPal account, so I sent another email on the 22nd Nov 2008:

Dear Efraim,
My apologies for bothering you again about this; but I was wondering if you could give me an update on the progress of the payment of the $100 prize money to my bank account, as detailed below. As of today, there was no record of this payment reaching my account; so I wanted to check in case you had hit a problem in processing at your end?

I'd be really grateful if you could let me know when the payment is likely to come through.

Thanks for your assistance with this,

--
Dr. Harjono Djoyobisono

The email above was the last communication with him. The money prize has not been sent to my bank or PayPal account.

I have a lawyer friend in Melbourne who is ready to act for me pro bono on this; and if I do not receive a satisfactory answer - and payment - shortly, will proceed with the first formal legal steps.

Hi,
So we all have same type of experience.
Sorry to say this is my first ever competition which seems to be a spam.
Last 2 years I achieved almost 20 honors internationally and nobody did such a thing and amazingly they also taken entry fee for it.
We must do something for stopping such competitions.
partha

Whoa i'm convinced its a scam, how dare Efraim come to this site and give MORE excuses!

reporting scammers in Australia(google'd)
Report a scam

I banned him - thats cheeky

That sucks that none of you got your money

Yeah I'd be very weary of competitions where you have to pay something to enter - unless it's a known charity or something

Bummer - your lawyer can do something - let us know what happens

I would never pay to enter something. Also, don't trust Aussie comps, we now know that too. Dodgy..
Just, no-one trust these people anymore, ok?

Hi,
It seems that photocomp will die soon.Just look at the current competition.....
The theme is very common "Travel", almost one and half month had elapsed and still only 36 photographs uploaded. Moreover the next competition theme is not published yet which give the indication it will die soon. it is a very good news that such a fraud competition will die ultimately and the bad news is that the winners have no chance to get the prize money they said.
I am waiting for that day.


Partha Pal

wow That sucks that none of you got your money

thanks for the warning as i was only looking at there comps thismorning .. i didnt enter Thank goodness I cant afford to throw $ away

maybe u could all get an action against him together with the lawyer in melb


Hey jo have u ban him from here ?? very cheeky posting lies and excuses here and to me proves he is googling to find out what ppl r saying or if he has got away with his scam

pfft that he waiting for money to come in what about all the entry money any proper site who charges entry would have it in a separate account to make winning payments from

spread the word everybody Efraim Silver from
Photocomp is a comp scammer and liar

I want to know why people can post threads saying something is a scam with no proof as to why it is a scam and how a particular site is scamming. I am a member of photocomp.com.au and I have recieved prize money for my pics! So tell me how is it a scam?

There once was an issue with an advertising link (non google add) which had an issue and brought down the sites google ranking however that issue was removed months ago and was not about the site just an unfortunate choice of advertising.

There was one member who took a little time to recieve his payment and was very quick to post messages saying it was a scam but he was not so quick to appologize when the issue was fixed.

People you should always back up your accusations with facts. Otherwise without facts it is entirely opinion or just gossip.

If there is a real issue as to why it is a scam then I would love to know the truth but as for now I am continuing my membership with photocomp.com.au as winning and getting money for my hobby is real fun thing to do.

If there are people who can prove they have received payment and very quickly at that will you change your mind. I think you will find that there are quite a few of us who can prove it!

By the way Effraim has members on his site who alert him to people making comments re the site so he does not have to google it to snoop, he gets a heads up from people who enjoy his site!

Ok so it seems someone did not receive their payment, but did you ever wonder if the fault lay in a technicality not in the intention of the site owner. Still at the end of the day there are more who have received their winnings than those that did not!

I wonder if you will have the integrity to print this post when it flies in the face of your damaging statements re - photocomp.com.au???