Is this legal? Lawyers only and please site which law is being broken if illegal.

Question

Is it illegal to offer a promotion on the internet if the terms of said promotion are not met. For instance, if someone says I have financial backers with billions of dollars who will donate money to purchase something for a certain number of people, if a certain number of people join an online group of theirs, and its obvious that they are bluffing and that the number of people is so high that they won't ever get that number so they won't have to buy the prizes is it illegal? Basically, the number is so high that it won't ever be reached and they won't have to spend tens of billions to buy the prizes, but if they don't have the billion-dollar financial

Answer 1

You honestly think there are attorneys who have enough free time to participate in Y! Answers (for free)?

LOL

It's false advertisement

Answer 2

It is a scam.

Answer 3

I don't see anything illegal in your extremely vague example.  As I understand it, they are saying something like:

Join today!  Once we have 5.5 billion members, our financial backers will match those dollars and we will buy 5.5 billion Ipods and send one to you!

If they are lying about financial backers, I guess you can sue to get your money back for breach of contract, still they cannot possible perform the contract.  But if they actually have the financing, there may be no laws against this.

BUT--these kinds of deals may be subject to "securities laws" that regulate sale of stock and shares of investment companies.