Another WhatsApp Scam: Is Cadbury giving away free chocolate baskets? No.
A viral message is being shared on Whatsapp and various other social media platforms claiming Cadbury is giving away 500 free chocolate baskets. The message reads:
” Cadbury is giving away 500 Free Baskets of Cadbury Chocolate to EVERYONE in its 196th ANNIVERSARY. Hurry up! Get your free basket at : HTTP://cadbskt04cht.az4.xyz”
Whatsapp:
FACEBOOK:
TRUTH:
When the link attached to this viral claim was clicked, it directed the users to various steps and then a whole new website, altogether, digressing them from the claim which it is making of giving away 500 chocolate baskets for free.
The below mentioned is a thread of pictures which depict what happens after you click the link. It is a process which initially shows that you might have a chance to win the hamper, but only leaves you in an unknown destination when you finish with it.
This is what you see first when you click the link:
The second step of the process primarily aims at determining your location:
On choosing your country and going through the process further, you reach the third step which tries to ask you a lame question to increase your temptation towards getting this hamper. This step also tries to keep you hooked with the process so you do not go away from completing it.
The fourth step is where you identify for yourself which platform led you to the link.
The fifth step is where you have to do the real work and this is not easy. Nor can you escape it because this website actually keeps a tab on your task.
You can move past the above mentioned step only when you perform the task correctly. Nothing less than 20 will let you move forward. And on completing the sharing game, this is what you land to:
And once you click confirm, you are taken to a different website which is not in any way related to why you ever clicked the link.
This leads us to the conclusion that this is one of those malicious scams which keep taking place every day on Whatsapp to use your contact information. This is known as a telemarking scam and their main aim is to acquire user information so that the collection of these in a form of a database can be sold out.
First of all, If Cadbury really was giving away such hampers, then it would directly broadcast it on television or announce it through their official account. The website’s URL itself speaks volumes by not showing any association with the original Cadbury website.
This is not the first time Cadbury has been dragged into this business. Earlier also various such messages have been passed on Facebook and Whatsapp primarily with a slightly different caption to fool masses.
These are usually WhatsApp/Telemarket scams and the aim behind such a plan is usually to earn a lot of money. This is how these are processed:
There are generally two ways in which these scams are operated-
1- Such offers do not ask the users to pay any money so they think giving it a shot will not harm them in any manner as they might as well turn lucky if they worked well. So they often start with filling up forms, submitting and sharing it on other Whatsapp groups as directed. Since a lot of people send it on various groups, members of these groups also give it a try and this way a lot of people collectively register on the website in a very short span of time.
The owners of these websites then use these contacts of the registered users as database and sell it for telemarking which further begin giving you calls on insurance offers, schemes, loans etc.
2- Advertisement on their home page which increases traffic through a lot of visits in less time. The owner earns on the basis of how many visitors view their website.
What can you do?
1- Check the URL of the website. A credible website will never have a complicated name with too many characters joined in a line making it longer than a usual URL. The government websites will mostly have “.gov” so it is easy to recognise when it is not a government website.
2- The right website will never ask you to share the link with 8 or 10 more people on your Whatsapp. It is a trap and you should be able to catch it the next time you find it.
3- On looking closely, you will be able to catch any grammatical errors and spelling mistakes which a properly made authentic website will not usually have.
4- The kind of ads and banners they run on their page will speak volumes.
Many such Scams were debunked earlier.
No, PM is not giving out free masks to all, it’s a usual TeleMarketing WhatsApp scam.
BEWARE! Many old WhatsApp scams floating around under new names and offers.
Another WhatsApp Scam. PM is not giving away laptops for free
Yet another WhatsApp scam, this time in the name of free t-shirt from Reliance Jio
It’s a TeleMarketing Scam. You can’t extend JIO offer with this.
A WhatsApp Scam back again, misusing photo of our PM as usual.
https://smhoaxslayer.com/can-you-change-whatsapp-from-green-to-any-o
