Official Rules

Organizer: Scarycom (the "Organizer"). Contest contact: [email protected]. These rules concern the judged contest, not Scarycom's ordinary footage submissions.

No purchase, payment, subscription, donation, like, share, comment, or YouTube viewing is required. Buying anything does not improve an entry's score. Open to residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia who are at least 18 at entry. Excludes territories and other countries, and persons whose participation or receipt of payment is prohibited by applicable law or U.S. sanctions. Organizer personnel, judges, their immediate families and household members are ineligible. No guardian entries on behalf of minors. Void where prohibited.

The contest opens when these completed rules and the contest entry form are first publicly activated on September 19, 2026. It closes October 19, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (America/New_York). The opening timestamp is displayed on the entry page. Only entries received during that period count. Site receipt records control timing. Ordinary submissions made before activation are not automatically entered.

Submit one original video through https://scarycom.com/submit using the contest form. Provide your name, email, state of residence, age/residency confirmations, a shareable video link, and a description of what happened. Accept these rules and acknowledge the privacy notice. Recording date, general location and preferred credit may also be supplied. Do not provide private street addresses in your story.

Host the video on a service that permits the judges to view/download it without payment or requesting access. Scarycom's form accepts a link, not an uploaded video file. Keep the link working through November 2, 2026. Email-only submissions are general submissions, not contest entries.

One entry per person; one clip up to three minutes. Earlier footage is welcome; no new recording or risky activity is required. Multiple accounts do not create extra entries. The first complete eligible entry is judged. Before closing, request a correction at [email protected] using the same email; a correction replaces the original and does not add an entry. Organizer will allow 48 hours to correct a link-access problem after notice, but no new footage or substantive changes after the deadline. If not corrected, the entry is ineligible.

Submit footage you recorded and own, including material from a camera you operate, and for which you can grant evaluation permission. Do not submit compilations, downloaded clips belonging to others, or footage subject to incompatible exclusive licenses. Obtain necessary permission for identifiable people and third-party material; do not include unauthorized music or private information.

This contest seeks documented strange or unsettling moments, not proof of paranormal activity. Ordinary explanations do not disqualify footage. Disclose every edit, trim, enhancement or reenactment. Synthetic/AI-generated events, deliberate hoaxes and staged events are ineligible for this contest even if disclosed; simple trimming that preserves context is allowed. Provide the original file and context if requested. Fabrication, deceptive omission, rights violations or prohibited content can disqualify an entry.

No trespassing, harassment, dangerous stunts, illegal activity, or putting people or animals at risk to obtain footage. Do not submit graphic injury or exploitative material. Entries must comply with YouTube's Community Guidelines: https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/policies/community-guidelines/ — noncompliant entries are disqualified.

Before judging, Organizer will appoint three independent adult judges who are not Organizer employees, entrants or entrants' family/household members and have no material interest in an entry. Judges must disclose conflicts and recuse; Organizer will appoint an independent replacement so every entry receives three scores.

Judging will finish by November 2, 2026. Each eligible entry receives a score out of 100 from each judge: • Clarity and usefulness for review: 30 points. • Completeness and credibility of the documented context: 30 points. • Originality and audience interest of the recorded moment: 25 points. • Quality of the accompanying explanation: 15 points.

The mean of the three scores determines rank. Expensive equipment, apparent danger, dramatic paranormal claims and popularity metrics earn no extra points. Judges evaluate documentation and storytelling rather than whether an event is supernatural.

Ties are resolved using the higher panel-average clarity score, then context, then originality, then explanation. If still tied, an additional independent judge ranks only the tied entries under the same criteria and provides a written reason. No coin toss, drawing or public vote. Organizer retains scoring and conflict records. Decisions under these published criteria are final, subject to correction of material scoring or eligibility errors.

First: US$250. Second: US$100. Third: US$50. Total advertised prizes: US$400. One prize per person. If fewer than three eligible entrants exist, award the available ranks; an unfilled rank has no recipient. Unfilled ranks will not be awarded by drawing.

Contact provisional winners from [email protected] by November 5, 2026. They have seven calendar days from the email to reply and provide reasonably necessary age/residency/ownership verification and payment details. If ineligible, declining or nonresponsive, contact the next ranked eligible entrant. No fee is required to claim a prize.

Pay within 30 calendar days after verification and acceptance, by a mailed check or mutually agreed lawful electronic payment method. Organizer pays transfer costs it initiates; winners are responsible for their applicable taxes. Do not email sensitive identity/tax documents until a secure collection method is provided. Announce agreed winner display names and ranks on the site after verification; do not publish contact information. A winner need not license public use of the footage to receive the prize.

Entrants retain ownership. Entering grants Organizer a nonexclusive, no-fee permission to access, download and privately share the entry with appointed judges and necessary contest administrators only for verification, judging and administration. No public-use license is granted by entering. Any public footage use, editing, creator credit, or additional payment requires a separate written agreement before publication, consistent with https://scarycom.com/submission-terms. Refusing that later agreement does not forfeit an earned prize.

Contest data is used to receive and evaluate entries, verify eligibility/ownership, contact entrants, document judging and deliver prizes. Judges receive only the footage and context needed for scoring where practical, not entrant email or payment details. Necessary administrators/providers may process data for those purposes; no new advertising consent is created by entry. Public winner credit is agreed separately. Data and permissions/payment records are retained for the purposes described in https://scarycom.com/privacy, including administration and disputes. Send privacy questions/requests to [email protected].

YouTube does not sponsor, administer or endorse this contest. To the extent permitted by law, entrants release YouTube from liability related to the contest. The contest does not require engagement with a YouTube channel. YouTube Terms: https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms. Organizer remains responsible for administration and prizes.

Organizer may disqualify fraud, tampering, prohibited conduct or material noncompliance, documenting the reason. Technical submission failures may prevent receipt; entrants should retain their confirmation and contact Organizer promptly about an error.

If a material outage, fraud or event outside reasonable control prevents fair operation, Organizer will publish a dated explanation and a fair prospective remedy consistent with law. Organizer will not secretly change criteria, shorten the entry period, reduce earned prizes or retroactively disadvantage eligible entries. Changes must be conspicuous. No term waives rights that cannot legally be waived. Applicable federal, state and local law governs; no mandatory arbitration or invented exclusive court venue is imposed here.