Survey scams lure participants into handing over email addresses, passwords, credit card information, and more.
Here’s how it works:
First, a crook will make a spoof website off of a brand’s site with stolen images so it looks legitimate. Then, they will send out emails asking targets to take a survey in exchange for a reward. The survey will ask about five or six questions, and then notify you that your survey is being processed. THEN come the switch. Instead of saying your survey has been submitted and giving you a coupon code or something like that, you will be notified that there are only X many rewards left, or that you are one of the lucky participants selected to receive a special reward like a smartphone. This prompts you to act in haste, enter details, and press continue. Sometimes there is a request for your email, password, and other personal identifying information, but often it takes you right to billing information.
From here, they ask you to put in your credit card information to pay the small cost of shipping your free smartphone, laptop, or tablet that you were selected to receive – or that there are only several left of and you have to act fast. When you enter your credit card information, the payment of course does not actually get processed. To avoid sending you to an error page – or having to make up an excuse for an error page – you get sent right to the Google search homepage. If you find yourself here, call your bank immediately to report fraud.
Con artists induce a sense of urgency to lure targets into acting before thinking. This is definitely a tactic employed in the fake survey scam. When you find yourself abruptly offered a free smartphone, laptop, or tablet, it’s a scam. When a survey switches the reward terms, it’s a scam. When you are asked to give personal and financial information, or pay shipping on your free reward, it’s a scam.