While scrolling on Facebook or Instagram you might come across a giveaway post that says Sam’s Club is giving away Yeti Hopper bags to women over 30 as promotion for Mother’s day. Beware, it’s a scam! This fake giveaway is a calculated tactic by scammers to get hold of your credit card details.
Posted on different social media pages, the giveaway posts may look convincing as Sam’s Club is tagged and there are comments from people who claimed to have received their own Yeti bag.
However, here are the red flags that indicate the giveaway is not legit;
Sam’s Club Yeti Bag Giveaway Scam Red Flags
RED FLAG #1: The giveaway posts are all posted on pages that are not the official Sam’s Club social media pages, and lack blue tick verification. On further inspection, the Facebook pages were created recently and have very few followers.
Meanwhile, the official Sam’s Club social media pages don’t have any information about ongoing Yeti bag giveaway.
RED FLAG #2: Comments from people who claimed to’ve received the Yeti bags are not real. Clicking on the profiles show that it’s a new social media account with little or no activity.
RED FLAG #3: The link attached to the giveaway posts is not the legit Sam’s Club website. On the legit Sam’s Club website (samsclub.com) there’s no mention of the giveaway.
How This Sam’s Club Yeti Bag for $1 Scam Works
The Sam’s Club Yeti bag giveaway scam 2024 claims winners only need to pay $1 for shipping. In the actual sense, instead of $1 the scammers deduct $74 immediately people submit their credit card on the fake website.
Providing your credit card details on the website automatically adds you to a paid monthly subscription scam. Unknown to people, the tiny words on the Checkout page says they’ve accepted to be charged a certain amount for access to an online magazine.
Also, there’s a likelihood that the website might have malware program running in the background. This might infest devices and compromise data, leading to ransomware, data breach, etc.
Solution for Victims;
If you’ve provided your credit card details on the scam website, here are what you should do;
- Contact your credit card issuer and narrate your experience
- Cancel the transaction and request for a refund if possible
- Destroy the credit card and get a new one (That way you wouldn’t get charged for the subscription again)
- Scan your devices with a malware checker tool. There’s a likelihood that there are malware, spyware, viruses or other malicious programs lurking on the scam giveaway websites. If found, the malware removal tool will them
- Update passwords and enable two factor authentication. Especially if a malicious program was found by the malware tool.
Tips on Spotting Fake Giveaways and Prizes
The first step you should take is finding out if the giveaway has been posted on the company’s social media accounts. If it hasn’t, the giveaway is likely a scam.
It’s a scam if You’re Asked To Pay an Upfront Fee. Legit giveaways don’t ask for any kind of fee, whether shipping or handling fee.
Scan the giveaway post for bad grammar, missing words, or spelling mistakes. Any company can make a minor mistake when typing out a win notification. However, multiple or glaring errors are a bad sign.
Are there reviews or posts about the giveaway online? It’s common for various news outlet to carry information about legit giveaways. By searching for reviews online you could also come across warning posts or complaints.