Costco Gift Card Facebook

VICTOR VALLEY: ()- Facebook users have been duped into clicking a post promising you will receive one of a limited amount of available free $500 Costco gift cards. The posts look real and as if a friend or other trusted person may have posted it to share the good news. The creator of this scam was likely betting on the financially struggling public to not be able to resist the urge to click the link because of the promise to receive the $500 card, that may help reduce their financial stress.

The link, which is not in any way endorsed by Costco,  asks you to share with your friends, like their page and to incite fear that if you do not act immediately you will miss out there is a countdown of how many cards are left. As the Facebook user navigates through the instruction it leads them to a place to input information such as your name, email address, date of birth and phone numbers. Your email will then usually be sold to outside sources who will send you a large amount of spam email. After you input the information you will then be asked to complete surveys and commit to several “reward offers”, these offers are usually subscription services or other links that require credit card information in order to complete them.

The purpose of these scammers in offering you this gift card, which you will not receive, is for them to gain affiliate commissions by getting you to the survey and for cost service websites. There are different variations of the scam, these have been on other websites, including Craigslist and Backpage but with the social media boom these scammers are taking advantage of the power of  social media.

This Costco Membership Deal Comes With A Free $40 Gift Card

The scam does not stop there, not only do they scam you into sharing the scam, but they also spam your provided email and these links which can result in the download of trojans and other viruses onto the computers of those following the links. So next time when you feel something may just be a little too good to be true, think about it and ask around. Make sure to always do your research and do not let them take advantage of your need and/or trusting nature.“Claim your Free $500 Costco Voucher Now. Only a few left” is the message you might have seen posted by one of your Facebook friends, but don’t be too quick to believe it.

Yes, the messages may well have been genuinely posted by your friends, but that’s because they were duped by the “Official Costco promotion” into thinking that if they jumped through various hoops (such as sharing the scam promotion with their online pals) that they themselves would receive a $500 gift voucher.

If your wallet is feeling a little light and you’re strapped for cash, it’s understandable that you might get excited if a company like Costco appears to be offering you a $500 gift voucher. But that doesn’t mean you should throw all good judgement out of the window at the same time.

Costco Gift Of Membership $25 $50 Online Bonus Includes Membership Renewals

If you did click on the link shared with you by one of your friends, you will end up on a webpage like this one, encouraging you to share the “offer”, post something nice about Costco, and like a Facebook page.

The webpage tells you that the Costco gift vouchers are in short supply, as a further encouragement for you to act quickly rather than think about what you are doing.

The campaign isn’t really endorsed by Costco, of course, and you aren’t ever going to receive that $500 Costco gift voucher. Instead, the scammers behind it are hoping to direct traffic to websites hosting online surveys, which will in turn earn them affiliate commission.

Costco Shop Card

It turns out that there are plenty of dubious Facebook pages offering bogus Costco gift cards, some of which have managed to generate thousands of “fans”.

And it seems there’s an endless stream of people willing to re-share and “Like” these pages as bogus $500 Costco gift cards are offered in different variations of the scam.

One of the examples pictured below, for instance, has over 13, 000 shares and a mind-boggling 4, 500+ Facebook users have been duped into leaving a comment on what they plan to spend their $500 gift voucher on.

I Was Sent $400 Of Costco Gift Cards From At&t With A Letter Thanking Me For Purchasing Service, But I Never Signed Up Or Paid For Any Service.

The real Costco Facebook page does encourage its many fans to re-share its posts and “Like” the opening of new stores. That’s quite reasonable. Most brands engage in that activity as part of their promotion via social media.

But it’s very different to fraudulently offering thousands of social networking users $500 gift voucher cards. If the offer were real, wouldn’t it be promoted on the real Costco Facebook page?

If you are on Facebook, and want to be kept up-to-date on the latest scams and threats, as well as tips on how to protect yourself online, join the Graham Cluley Security News Facebook page.

Exposing The Top Scams Targeting Costco Shoppers

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

It turns out that there are plenty of dubious Facebook pages offering bogus Costco gift cards, some of which have managed to generate thousands of “fans”.

And it seems there’s an endless stream of people willing to re-share and “Like” these pages as bogus $500 Costco gift cards are offered in different variations of the scam.

One of the examples pictured below, for instance, has over 13, 000 shares and a mind-boggling 4, 500+ Facebook users have been duped into leaving a comment on what they plan to spend their $500 gift voucher on.

I Was Sent $400 Of Costco Gift Cards From At&t With A Letter Thanking Me For Purchasing Service, But I Never Signed Up Or Paid For Any Service.

The real Costco Facebook page does encourage its many fans to re-share its posts and “Like” the opening of new stores. That’s quite reasonable. Most brands engage in that activity as part of their promotion via social media.

But it’s very different to fraudulently offering thousands of social networking users $500 gift voucher cards. If the offer were real, wouldn’t it be promoted on the real Costco Facebook page?

If you are on Facebook, and want to be kept up-to-date on the latest scams and threats, as well as tips on how to protect yourself online, join the Graham Cluley Security News Facebook page.

Exposing The Top Scams Targeting Costco Shoppers

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.