Is getting a gift card for $100 from Walmart or Target worth giving up your bank account number or other information that could make you a victim of identity theft? That’s what could happen if you fall for a fake survey offer that’s showing up in your inbox and Facebook streams.
In the tempting offer from Walmart, it says visit here and fill out our survey and get $100 gift card. At first the survey questions are standard but here’s where the red flag comes into play. They start asking for personal information
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
like your credit card number and address. Or they offer $100 off suspect products like credit monitoring … which later start showing up as charges on your credit card.
A similar offer from Target is making the rounds. Kevin Hinterberger with the Greensboro BBB says it could infect your computer with a virus.
“Whether it’s a virus that goes into get additional information as far as email addresses and so forth or it could be something that’s a little more dangerous in that you’re downloading a virus and it’s looking for banking information that’s on your computer,” says Kevin.
These fake emails don’t have the tell-tale signs line misspellings or awkward language but Kevin posed a really interesting question you should ask when you see this or anything that seems too good to be true: that goes into get additional information as far as email addresses and so forth or it could be something that’s a little more dangerous in that you’re downloading a virus and it’s looking for banking information that’s on your computer,” says Kevin.
“If I’m running a business would I pay someone hundred dollars to complete a survey and is that a sustainable business model?,” says Kevin.
Here’s a few other ways you spot customer survey scheme:
– Don’t believe what you see. It’s easy to steal a logo off a website.
– Hover over the link and see where it takes you – is it a site for the real business?
– Do a quick web search to see if there’s an alert.
And Kevin had one more piece of advice 2 Wants to Know loved about emails: “If it’s unsolicited, delete it.”
Walmart does offer a legitimate survey. It gives five winners a $1000 gift card every three months, but it’s only advertised on its receipts.
