How to Identify Gift Card and Voucher Scams on Facebook
One way to identify gift card and voucher scams is to consider whether the offer is too good to be true. If it is, then it likely is a scam. Googling for information about the offer can also help.
Things to Do when You See Fake Offers on Facebook
1. Ignore the message. The link will likely lead you to another page that may prompt you to answer survey ads or download malicious application.
2. If you think the offer is legitimate, make sure to use Google for to find further information and confirmation that the offer is legit.
3. If the offer turned out to be a fake, flag the message as spam by clicking the x mark button on the right side of the message.
4. Help keep your friends safe from gift card and voucher scams on Facebook by informing them about fake offers.
Below are some of the widely circulated fake gift card and voucher offers online:
Eat at McDonalds for Free
With thousands of branches and chains worldwide, McDonald's is undeniably one of the most popular, if not the most successful of the fast food restaurants worldwide. It is currently the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants with presence in 119 countries serving approximately 68 million customers everyday.
Unfortunately, McDonald's popularity also have drawbacks since the iconic name has repetitively been used in spreading false humors and bogus offers in the social networking site Facebook. Together with such Starbucks, Best Buys and a number of popular other consumer brands, hoax news and fake offers from MacDonalds is often used to lure innocent people to answer surveys or provide their personal details to online scammers.
If you love the popular fastfood chain McDonalds, be sure not to fall to survey scams that distribute fake MCDonals meal vouchers to dupe facebookers into reposting the scam and answering surveys:
Eat at McDonalds for FREE! (limited time only)
McDonald’s is currently giving away free meal vouchers to all Facebook users!!
Walmart is giving away $1,000 gift cards
Wouldn’t it be nice if Walmart is giving away $1,000 gift cards by simply asking people to share or do rewards survey on Facebook? As good as this may sound, however, any messages you see in the social networks telling you of Walmart distributing gift cards for almost everyone is a hoax.
£250 Asda Shopping Voucher
Target $500 Gift Card Giveaway
Applebee's Gift Card
$500 Woolworths Voucher Scam
$500.00 Victoria Secret Gift Cards
One of these new scams appear to target ladies who may drool on the supposed Victoria’s secret merchandises that they dream of getting their hands to if they receive the supposed free gift cards on Facebook. By how the messages are reshared on Facebook, it appear that the gift cards are distributed by the popular lingerie brand for Facebook users.
Get Dunkin Donut Gift Card for FREE! (limited time only)
Regal/AMC Movie Tickets
The biggest and most awaited movies of the year is hitting the cinemas this summer: The Avengers and the Men In Black 3, for example. Scammers, however, are also looking forward to the excitement generated by these movies since they have been using supposed free Regal/AMC movie tickets as bait to make people fall to survey scams.
Free Walgreens Gift Card
Scammers on Facebook keep luring and deceiving people to click the links they spread in the social network by making use of bogus give aways. Apparently the Christmas season and the coming new year make the Facebook give away scams perfect for making people visit survey scam sites or provide their personal information such as their emails and telephone numbers.
$25 Tim Hortons Gift Card
Costco Gift Card
Amazon.com Gift Card
Here’s the newer variation of the Outback gift caRd Facebook scam, a message that claims you’ll get free Tim Horton gift card/ coupon if you share the message on your wall and do some survey.
Free Cheese Factory Gift Cards
Argos Gift Cards
Free KFC Gift Card
If you are rooting for a KFC lunch, don't trust the messages circulating in Facebook to give you free meals. Scammers are yet again distributing fake gift card messages in the social network the latest using the name of KFC. Here's the misleading messages being reshared by non suspecting Facebook users at the moment:
Get $100 KFC Gift Card (limited time only) CLICK HERE & CLAIM NOW
KFC is currently giving away $100 gift card to 10,000 lucky Facebook users!
KFC already denied the claims of this fraudulent give away via a statement in their Australian Facebook Page:
Hi all KFC Australia Fans,
We have had a number of questions and posts to the page regarding the $100 gift voucher offer currently being circulated on Facebook.
We can confirm that this is NOT an official offer and apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused. If you have installed an application or connected the offer to your account we would advise you remove it immediately. Thank you.
If you wonder why bogus vouchers and gift cards are getting rampant on Facebook, scammers actually earn money whenever people answer surveys that they prompt whenever links to these misleading gift cards are clicked. Do not fall to these give away scams on Facebook.
Free $100 McDonald’s Gift Card for Mother’s Day
Sharing to mothers in your network a message on Facebook that promises to give free $100 McDonald’s gift card for Mother’s Day isn't really a nice way of saying Happy Mother's day to your mom friends because this is a scam. If you're a mom, don't get duped into believing MCDonalds is giving away giftcards for you today because this is not true.
$1000 Visa Gift Card
The link will ask you to answer surveys supposedly to determine whether you are qualified for the visa gift card.
Eat for Free at Pizza Hut
After the the Starbucks voucher scam and the free $250 Outback Steakhouse gift card scam, another bogus offer is yet circulating on Facebook. This time, the message says you can eat for free at the popular pizza restaurant Pizza Hut if you share or repost the message and its link, leave a comment and provide the information you are asked for.
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