Spam / Pay to Play
I started receiving unsolicited emails from this company on the 1st July and have received 1 every week since. I asked my AI to run a search and find out who they were. This was the response:
Summary of Prestige Awards
Prestige Awards is run by Corporate LiveWire, a company that produces promotional award schemes. These awards are not based on public voting or verified industry standards—they often contact businesses out of the blue and tell them they've "won" an award, but then ask for a marketing fee (usually hundreds of pounds) to accept it and receive a trophy or publication feature.
It’s not an outright scam, but it’s more of a vanity award or “pay-to-play” publicity stunt. The legitimacy is in the eye of the beholder:
✅ They do exist and run real events/publications.
❌ But the award is meaningless without the payment and isn’t based on merit or competition.
Bottom line:
If you’re being asked to pay, treat it like you would a salesperson knocking on your door saying you’ve won a prize as long as you pay for delivery. You’re not being scammed as such, but you are being pitched to, under the guise of recognition. Most reputable businesses ignore these kinds of "awards." Next I will be looking for a ISP abuse email for spamming.