And once again the voucher beckons.

Competition generators never tire of luring users with vouchers for various supermarkets and companies.

Once again one of these fake competitions is in circulation, this time in the name of SPAR:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

Get your FREE SAVE voucher worth…
spargustcheine.com

I just received a free €150 voucher from. Get yours before the offer ends. Thank me for that later. …

The fact check

At first glance, the poor spelling is notable. If you look closer, the link with “sparg ustc heine” doesn’t necessarily seem trustworthy.

Nevertheless, if you follow the link, you will reach this website:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

This specifies that SPAR would be looking for testers. Below is a picture of a 150 euro voucher for the supermarket. If you scroll further down...

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

you will be asked to take part in a mini survey. If you fill out a form at the end, you wave to the participants “the brand new savings collection”.

We already know such question rounds from countless other competitions, which in the end only want one thing: your data!

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

Once you have answered all the questions (and it doesn't matter WHICH answers you choose), you will receive warm congratulations and you should share the chance to win a voucher with 15 of your WhatsApp contacts .

This is how you most likely received the fake competition.

If you would like to collect your winnings, you can go here:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

Suddenly it's no longer about a SPAR voucher. You receive a selection of other vouchers, including a Rewe voucher worth 500 euros as well as a Billa voucher and a Migros voucher worth 600 CHF.

By clicking on the participate button you can finally see who is behind the competition: Lead Spot Media GmbH .

Not a word will be said about SPAR anymore.

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

If you take part, the trap closes and the competition generators get what they actually wanted - the participants' data and the consent to bombard them with advertising .

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

In order to participate, you must agree that a long list of sponsors may contact the participant by telephone, post or email to inform them about various offers (advertising).

Lead generator

We have often found EXACTLY THIS method, just with other vouchers as bait. In addition to Lead Spot Media, other lead generators also collect data - much to the annoyance of the companies used as decoys. So far we have mostly noticed Proleagion, adpublisher, red lemon media GmbH, Proleagion, 7sections GmbH and Planet49.

The user is promised and led to believe something that is not true at all. The status post gives the user the impression that they could win cars, sweets, gift cards or, in other cases, airline tickets, but that is not the case. STAYS AWAY from such “competitions”! Nobody has anything to give away.

Additional information about bait competitions:

Bait competition means that you are promised a great prize, e.g. 4 free tickets for 300 families for Heide Park, but in the end you are only linked to corresponding commission programs.

Overall, one can say that WhatsApp users are being unknowingly tricked by their own friends, because these pre-formulated messages exploit the relationship of trust between two people by suggesting that the message was written personally by the acquaintance and is therefore considered credible by the recipient is classified.

These WhatsApp messages contain a constructed web address that does not belong to the alleged company. It should be mentioned at this point: Well-known companies have no connection with these bait competitions and have absolutely nothing to do with any commission programs that may be linked!

Identical process!

Since all of these competitions are identical (whether Knoppers, Adidas or Haribo are mentioned), we will repeat the explanation of how they work here:

What's happening here!

You will receive the message shown above from a contact via WhatsApp! This message is the so-called competition bait. This bait creates a promise of winning and suggests that you basically already have the winnings in your pocket. The fraudsters lure people with the ease of participation and lure them to a website. The bait is the viral entry into the competition process. As soon as you follow the link, a website opens on your smartphone.

This website appears to be a supposed competition with a question and answer session. It is only intended to simulate the character of a competition. We also call this step the bridge . The bridge takes the form of a fake competition. In this bridge, you are usually promised a win directly, deception is used and fake elements are used.

Ultimately, this bridge is also an illegal component because the promises made are not kept and the structure and presentation use protected graphic elements. The corporate design of existing companies and their products are mercilessly exploited; on the bridge people also like to pretend to be the company depicted. Goal of the bridge:

a) Generate virality (example: forward this competition to 20 contacts).
b) A link is installed that should lead to the supposed prize.

By the way, you will also be asked to send this fake competition to several contacts on WhatsApp.

And this is how it all ends:

In the third and final step you will be linked to a so-called affiliate program. You leave the bridge via a link that contains an affiliate code that belongs to a commission program. This is an affiliate whose content, if possible, correlates with the fake competition running in the bridge. We call this final link the exit.

Note: The exit itself, i.e. the affiliates that are linked to, is not illegal! These are business models in which the respective provider of such programs compensates its sales partners through commissions. These sales partners are recognized by the provider through an identification code, so that every newly registered participant in the affiliate competition can also be assigned to the sales partner.

By the way, the person who designs the bridge freely decides which partner program he uses as an exit. We also often find systems that read the participant's origin and device information and thus direct them specifically to different commission programs. Therefore, you can never say clearly which commission program will ultimately be used; in the worst case, you will end up with dubious WAP billing stories or opaque subscription services.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )