Beware of scammy “Free $500 Target voucher” offers

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the end-of-year holidays rapidly approaching and people’s minds being turned towards shopping and gift-giving, scammy offers for luxury goods and free gift cards are starting to target would-be online shoppers at a faster rate than usual.

Facebook users are particularly easy targets, as Facebook scams often get unknowingly propagated and endorsed by the victims.

Take this latest survey scam as an example: users are lured in by friends’ messages saying “Thank you Target!” and offering a link to a page where they can supposedly claim a free $500 Target voucher. Who would say no to that?

But, unfortunately, the message has no connection to Target whatsoever, and there is no free vouchers to be had.

Instead, the scammers will make victims share the bogus promotion page with their friends’ – which will make it appear on their Timeline and, thus, be visible to all – and add a comment:

Lastly, the victims are asked to pass a “Security Check” in the form of a survey, and may be asked to share personal information, give out their phone number (and simultaneously get subscribed to expensive services), or download potentially harmful software.

“But no matter how many offers or surveys they complete, or what services they subscribe to, victims will never receive their promised Target vouchers,” warns Hoax-Slayer.