No, Sam’s Club isn’t giving away Yeti Hopper M40 bags to women over 30. The giveaway post which is seen on Facebook and instagram is fake and not from the legit Sam’s Club pages. If you’ve come across the fake giveaway on social media, here’s what you need to know about this scam.
How The Sam’s Club Yeti Bag Giveaway Scam Works
The giveaway scam claims Sam’s Club is giving away Yeti Hopper M40 to all women over 30 in honor of its birthday month ‘April’. Social media users are told to apply for this giveaway by simply clicking on the link and paying a $1 shipping fee.
However, when people click on the link, instead of the $1 shipping fee they’re lured into a subscription scam. At the order page on the website are words written in tiny letters which says ‘You accept to be charged a certain amount for access to an online magazine’.
This subscription has nothing to do with the legit Sam’s Club, neither is the magazine from the brand. Once users proceed to make the $1 shipping fee payment, they’d be charged extra fees and more each month.
Of course, they don’t receive the Yeti bag or anything at all. Rather, they get cheap online magazines in their email and a monthly charge of $77.
Red Flag #1 – Fake Social Media Pages
The giveaway posts are all posted on recently created Facebook pages that has very few followers and media. The pages are not the official Sam’s Club social media pages, and they don’t have blue ticks to verify their legitimacy.
Red Flag #2 – Untrustworthy Website
The website attached to the giveaway posts is not the legit Sam’s Club website which is samsclub.com. It’s not possible for Sam’s Club to offer such promotion in an unclaimed website domain.
Also, we’ve concerns that the website might have malware program running in the background. This might infest devices and compromise data, leading to ransomware, data breach, etc.
Red Flag #3 – Fake Reviews
On the giveaway posts, there are reviews from people who claim to have received the Yeti bags. However, this is a concocted lie. Majority of the profiles dropping the reviews have either been hacked recently or were created recently.
What Victims of this scam should do;
People who’ve fallen for this scam should contact their credit card issuer, then do this;
- Cancel the transaction
- Request for a refund if possible
- Cancel their credit card and get a new one (That way they wouldn’t get charged for the subscription again)
When the above steps have been completed. They should then proceed to scan their devices with a malware checker tool. There’s a likelihood that there are malware, spyware, viruses or other malicious programs lurking on the scam giveaway websites. If found, the malware removal tool will them
The final step to take is to update passwords and enable two factor authentication. Especially if a malicious program was found by the malware tool.
How To Spot Fake Giveaways and Prizes
Check the Company’s Social Media Accounts
The first step you should take is finding out if the giveaway has been posted on the company’s social media accounts. If it hasn’t, the giveaway is likely a scam.
If You’re Asked To Pay an Upfront Fee
Legit giveaways don’t ask for any kind of fee, whether shipping or handling fee.
Check For Grammatical and Spelling Mistakes
Scan the giveaway post. Do you notice bad grammar, missing words, or spelling mistakes? These are red flags for a scam. Any company can make a minor mistake when typing out a win notification. However, multiple or glaring errors are a bad sign.
Search for Reviews Online
Are there reviews or posts about the giveaway online? It’s common for various news outlet to carry information about legit giveaways. By searching for reviews online you could also come across warning posts or complaints.
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