Yahoo Finance Is this $50 Woolworths offer a scam?
Some Australians are receiving emails offering a $50 incentive to fill in a survey, triggering a debate on social media about its authenticity.
The email, with full Woolworths branding, entices the recipient with the header "A offer valued at $50 for the weekend? Just give your feedback".
The body of the email states the recipient had been "selected to get an exclusive reward".
"To qualify for this offer, simply complete our 30-second marketing survey about your experiences with Woolworths."
While Yahoo Finance has contacted Woolworths for comment about this specific email, it looks very similar to past scams.
The customer survey scam is an old method of attempting to harvest private or payment details from Australians who think they are submitting it to a legitimate company.
The Woolworths website already lists a very similarly worded email as a scam.
Other signs that the email is not genuine are:
The email never addresses the recipient by name, even though it claims the person was "selected".
The hyperlinks go to suspicious addresses that do not involve Woolworths.
The Woolworths graphic at the top of the email has the first letter as lower case. The supermarket always spells it with an uppercase W.
The disclaimer says the "offer requires paid participation within the advertiser's rewards program". The real Woolworths rewards scheme is free to join.
The disclaimer says "the rewards program is not endorsed, sponsored by or affiliated with any merchants listed above".
The disclaimer says the email was "sent by a third-party on behalf of the advertiser".
Woolworths, as a big brand that many Australians patronise, is frequently a target of scammers who hijack its name. The supermarket giant even told Facebook to remove a "free year of groceries" scam post that went viral last year.
Similarly, Kmart's brand name was also stolen by criminals in a "free baby products" scam doing the rounds on Facebook this week.
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