GREENSBORO, NC -- Is getting a gift card for $100 from Walmart or Target worth giving up your bank account number or other information that could make you a victim of identity theft? That's what could happen if you fall for a fake survey offer that's showing up in your inbox and Facebook streams.
In the tempting offer from Walmart, it says visit here and fill out our survey and get $100 gift card. At first the survey questions are standard but here's where the red flag comes into play. They start asking for personal information
like your credit card number and address. Or they offer $100 off suspect products like credit monitoring … which later start showing up as charges on your credit card.
A similar offer from Target is making the rounds. Kevin Hinterberger with the Greensboro BBB says it could infect your computer with a virus.
"Whether it's a virus that goes into get additional information as far as email addresses and so forth or it could be something that's a little more dangerous in that you're downloading a virus and it's looking for banking information that's on your computer," says Kevin.
These fake emails don't have the tell-tale signs line misspellings or awkward language but Kevin posed a really interesting question you should ask when you see this or anything that seems too good to be true: that goes into get additional information as far as email addresses and so forth or it could be something that's a little more dangerous in that you're downloading a virus and it's looking for banking information that's on your computer," says Kevin.
"If I'm running a business would I pay someone hundred dollars to complete a survey and is that a sustainable business model?," says Kevin.
Here's a few other ways you spot customer survey scheme:
- Don't believe what you see. It's easy to steal a logo off a website.
- Hover over the link and see where it takes you – is it a site for the real business?
- Do a quick web search to see if there's an alert.
And Kevin had one more piece of advice 2 Wants to Know loved about emails: "If it's unsolicited, delete it."
Walmart does offer a legitimate survey. It gives five winners a $1000 gift card every three months, but it's only advertised on its receipts.
