GREENSBORO, N.C. — I got this text out of the blue saying: "Congrats, Ben! Your code 9FR-S3R7 printed on your last receipt is among 7 we randomly picked for $1000 Walmart gift card promotion."
We all want a thousand bucks for free! But clearly it seems too good to be true. So instead of clicking on that link, I Googled it first.
Do this with any strange text or call you ever get. If it's a scam, someone's probably already posted about it online.
When you Google, put the message in quotation marks. That helps you find it faster. In this case, it turned out to be an old scam from 2012.
The CBS station in Denver did an old story about how Walmart does give away $1,000 gift cards for completing surveys online. But they would never text you to say you won. They would send you a certified letter.
It turns out, clicking on that link could infect your phone with a virus or take you to a site where they try to get your personal information to steal your identity.
Remember, any time something looks too good to be true, Google it first.