Supermarket gift card link scam

[peteyt 393]

Not sure if this is happening over in the US or anywhere else but here in the UK there is a scam going on right now involving supermarkets and gift cards.

This appears to be targeting Facebook and Whatsapp right now but may target others. It tells people to click a link to get a free gift card. The link may appear genuine. However specific letters in the link have been replaced with special characters. For example the scam uses the special character "đ" rather than a normal D, sometimes also using a "ḍ" - which appears normal but has a dot underneath. The links lead to surveys which ask often for financial information but they could be used for other purposes e.g. for spreading malware.

These types of scams work well as the messages come from people who you know. They may think it's a genuine link when sending it or they may have not sent it themselves e.g. they have been hacked. It's best to avoid these types of link. If I'm ever unsure about an email and the link appears genuine, I will delete the email and go to the site myself, typing it in, so that I know I'm going to the correct site. Also it's good to remember the simple phrase - "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

hxxp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41900814# 

[itman 1,659]

22 minutes ago, peteyt said:

They may think it's a genuine link when sending it or they may have not sent it themselves e.g. they have been hacked.

Use an e-mail client. For starters, Eset's e-mail scanner will scan all incoming e-mail. Disabled all active content in e-mail by appropriate e-mail client settings. Also in same, disable auto opening of any attachments. You can also go one step further and only allow e-mail in text format as I do.

Edited November 10, 2017 by itman

[TomFace 539]

These days it's a "Scam de jour" in the USA. Just don't open unknown e-mails, don't click on ANY pop ups (use Alt + F4 or Task Manager to close them) or call the toll free numbers they show and don't answer unknown callers (and DO NOT call unknown numbers back....*67 (number blocking) does not work on toll free numbers). You wouldn't invite a totally unknown  stranger into your house to steal whatever they want would you?

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/scam-alerts?utm_source=takeaction

Edited November 11, 2017 by TomFace