Last week scammers used the popular messaging app ‘WhatsApp’ to trick people into handing over personal details in exchange for bogus supermarket vouchers.
The app was used to send fake vouchers to people, acting on behalf of big chains such as, Tesco, Asda and Aldi. The messages claimed to save shoppers hundreds of pounds in savings, in exchange for following a link and completing a survey asking for personal details.
This particular scam is a form of phishing, where scammers and fraudsters pose as reputable companies in order to gain valuable and personal information.
So far, 33 people have come forward claiming to have fallen victim to the scam, it is however still unknown as to how many people received the message. Upon completing the survey, it urges you to send to a further 20 of your personal contacts to receive an even better financial reward, this helps legitimise the scam, says Action Fraud, as rather than being sent the message by a random number, the message comes from a trusted contact.
To many the message would have seemed legitimate as it the link appeared almost identical to the company it was claiming to be, subtle changes in the address such as Latin letters in place of regular letters. It is imperative to keep alert should you ever receive a message such as this, if something looks too good to be true, it quite often is.