Groundhog Day within the same day. Just a few hours ago we warned about a fake competition in the name of Obi that is currently making the rounds on WhatsApp. And now this message appears in which there are apparently 5,000 returned ones from Amazon. For free. Naturally …

… NOT! Amazon doesn't give anything away!

Does that really sound coherent and obvious? That Amazon, one of the richest companies in the world, simply gives away items that are returned by customers? Really? No it does not. And no, you can't sugarcoat it in any way or explain it in any other meaningful way. If the items are OK, they will be sold again. If they are broken, it would be a shame to give them away. And that Amazon has the donation pants on and just gives out 5,000 free products... - um. No!

It's a fake!

And the process is always the same. If you click on the link in the message, which leads to a Russian domain and not one from Amazon, a page opens that appears to have an Amazon look but has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the online giant.

After a few disgustingly simple questions, you'll be asked to spread the word about the competition. Of course via WhatsApp. Either to five WhatsApp groups or 20 of his contacts. Why? So that others are also busy doing a click marathon on dubious sites? No, in reality it's about spreading the fake competition. The aim is to find as many victims as possible who will be lured by the “gift announcement”.

So there are no gifts?

No. What there is is spam, subscriptions you never wanted, and sometimes, as the icing on the cake, malware on top.
In this case, it leads from alleged products that Amazon is supposed to give away to an iPhone, then later to a jackpot of almost 16 million US dollars, then just 1 million euros, which you win in an online casino should.

And all this after you have entered at least your name, email address, gender and date of birth and invested 10 euros in the online casino.

Alleged competitions that arrive via WhatsApp always follow the same pattern. In this case, the process after the announcement of an iPhone supposedly up for grabs is the same as in the fake competition in the name of Obi. You can find detailed screenshots in our article HERE .

Conclusion

In the end, you don't get the promised profit, but instead you lose your personal data, receive endless spam, may have taken out an expensive subscription or even downloaded malware.

Therefore: Ignore and delete such messages, which come with a URL that smells noticeably fake anyway. And it's best to inform the sender that this is a fake competition that has nothing to do with the alleged sender.

You might also be interested in: Tips for using social networks safely


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Notes:
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