Vodafone Free Phone but Courier delivery 3 euros is an online SCAM
And here is why: the online survey popped up on my screen with the Vodafone logo, pretending to be a Customer Reward Program and looking very legit. A survey offered to 100 randomly picked long time vodafone customers and with the chance of a great free gift for taking part eg a Samsung Galaxy S9, or Apple iPhone XS or an iPad pro. I didn't like the pressure sell aspect of taking part but it still looked kosher enough for me to actually go ahead and answer the 8 survey questions ,but then I began to notice very fishy things about it:
- I was told instantly I had won the prize of an iPhone, no draw whatsoever
- There was a massive urgent pressure for me to accept the free phone gift within a couple of minutes
- There was a free phone worth somewhere between $1000-$2000 yet they needed to charge me 3 euros courier delivery <----note they now are asking for your credit card details!!
- The courier listed as DHL do not deliver anything for under 5 euros in Ireland, lol, lazy asses didn't even do their homework.
- I'd seen a facebook post where a woman said she accepted a courier delivery of a fancy gift and they swiped her a tiny charge next thing her credit card was being used by thieves!
- Look at the browser tab in the second pic below compared to the official vodafone website which I went and looked up to see if they had news of this scam, they didn't, except to say there were a number of scams in play and don't give anyone credit details as they always use secure pages.
As scams go, this is a tempting one to fall into - they even had me taking part at first and I usually don't do those surveys! But ultimately I declined to take the 'free gift' and part with my credit card details. I ignored all the testimonials from people underneath saying how true and wonderful the deal was, likely stolen images too.
...be warned if someone asks you to accept any gift with a courier charge, it could be alcohol, chocolates, phones or devices or anything you desire!
Mary.
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Good catch. So many scams throughout the year, but seems the Holidays bring them out in force!
lol there's an idea, imagine if someone landed on your doorstep with turkey and a hamper that you'd 'won' and said you just have to pay te $5 courier fee - how hard to resist this time of year!
Hi Mary
Thanks for the warning and heads up on the scam.
If you don't mind I would like to ask if you are an existing customer of theirs or is this random?
Please excuse my question if you'd rather not answer in this forum or you maybe you could send me a PM.
I've nothing to hide, it's just part of my day job.
Best Regards
Nick
I should add, it's not just vodafone, the woman who posted on facebook had received an actual courier delivery of champagne or something, so they gladly took it not minding the delivery fee...I happened to get hit with an online version of that today, and looks like it could crop up anywhere - though were they just lucky picking on a long term customer, who knows!
Absolutely, Mary, it can come from anywhere, normally associated with website and email combinations. You can check your own email address in terms of security breaches here
https://haveibeenpwned.com/
The link is for a website that checks email addresses to show if they have been found in any data released via large scale security breaches.
Don't be alarmed if you find your own email address is there. I found mine.
As long as you are using good password management practices, then you are okay.
It can be reassuring in some ways to understand how these scammers get personal details in the first place
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Thank you for sharing that with us!