A Malaysian couple have lost an appeal after they sent nearly 30,000 texts to enter a competition, and lost. The cost of the messages came to over US$5,000. Despite the huge volume of messages they sent in, they ended up winning the third place prize, a motorcycle that is worth less than US$2,000.

Wong Jee Wai and her boyfriend, Siew Kam Hong misread the competition entry details and thought that the prize, worth some US$45,000 would go to whomever sent in the most messages, when in fact there was an element of skill involved as the winner was in fact chosen from slogans sent in by the 50 most prolific messages. Despite being the most prolific sender of entries, the prize was awarded to a rival who sent in just over one thousand messages.

The tribunal that heard the complaint against the Berita Minggu newspaper upheld the newspapers method of running the competition, and cautioned the couple to be more careful when reading competition entry details in future.