Scammers will offer you the sun if they'll think you'll fall for it

Oct 4, 2011 06:44 GMT  ·  By

Another typical Facebook scam has hit the walls, this time making a fake offer for a $250 Olive Garden gift card. Unfortunately, the only thing you'll end up with is a spammed inbox and a lot of unwanted messages on your phone.

Facecrook noticed the stratagem which claims to give away dinners for two for a week, in return for a share on your wall and a comment. To claim your alleged prize, you have to complete a survey and a form which asks for information such as your name, email and phone number.

When Facecrook tested the link, it took them to an Olive Garden resembling website which contained the survey. When I followed the My-Italian-Gourmet.com link it took me to a standard hoax page that contains free prizes allowing me to choose between a MacBook, an iPhone or an iPad.

I assume it must have something to do with the location of the potential victim. Because there are no Olive Gardens in my vicinity, I get the 'universal' swindle. If your IP matches the one coming from a city in the US, you'll probably get the free gift card hoax.

By now I can tell you for sure that most of these advertisements are scams, but if you really want to be certain, there are a few things you can check.

In most of the cases, when faced with a bogus deal, you will get a large number of reroutes to addresses that have nothing to do with the company that's offering the prize. Another thing is that these pages always tell you that you are the winner. Even if you access them a few days later, the masterminds behind these rackets always make sure you are the winner.

If you do fall for the scam, make sure you remove all the posts relating to it from your wall to protect your friends from getting spammed.