The Coleman tent giveaway on Facebook is not legit. Coleman is not giving away tents for free this 2024. Just like the fake Yeti bag giveaway we debunked few weeks ago, the giveaway post is created by scammers phishing for credit card details.
The fake giveaway posts claims Coleman is looking for testers to hand out its family tents with WeatherTec System. Facebook users are made to believe that they only need to answer some survey questions and pay a small fee for shipping.
This of course, is a scam tactic, and if you took a close look at the posts, you would notice the following red flags;
Red Flag #1 – Fake Social Media Pages
The giveaway posts are all posted on recently created Facebook pages that have very few followers and media. The pages are not the official Coleman Facebook pages, and they don’t have blue ticks to verify its authenticity.
Red Flag #2 – Untrustworthy Website
The website attached to the giveaway posts is not the legit Coleman Tent’s websites which are; coleman.com, colemanuk.co.uk, coleman.eu and colemannz.co.nz. It’s not possible for Coleman 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 Tent. However, this is a concocted lie. Majority of the profiles dropping the reviews have either been hacked recently or were created recently.
How The Fake Free Coleman Tent Giveaway Scams Victims
When people click on the link attached to the giveaway post, they’d be directed to a spoofed website to answer some survey questions and also pay the shipping cost.
However, 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’.
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 tent or anything at all.
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.