A few days ago I came across a scam on Instagram that, at first glance looked very convincing. It was a post claiming that a popular clothing brand was giving away free gift cards to anyone who clicked on their link and filled out their information and completed a survey. This scam was intended to collect personal data such as phone numbers, emails, and possibly even credit card details.
The scam was simple and yet effective. The post used professional styled language and used official looking logos making it seem legitimate. The post also gave a sense of urgency by using statements like “limited time only”. Which causes people to succumb to pressure and jump on the deal. After clicking on the link it would lead you to a website that looked decently real and very similar to the real brands website, which causes you to gain its trust.
Thinking back about it now, there were plenty of things that gave the scam away. the url in the link didn’t match the official brands url, there were spelling errors and grammatical errors within the site, and also brands don’t usually give away large sums of money like that.
This showed me how easy it is to be fooled into hoaxes and scams, especially online. And it also showed me the importance of double checking everything, staying away from suspicious links, and how critical thinking can lead you to question unrealistic offers like this one.
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