Coles survey gift card email scam
The chance to claim a $50 Coles gift voucher is the bait dangled to entice people to click on a link in an email. The idea behind this email follows a well known marketing tool, which is to provide some largesse in return for filling out a short survey. These types of emails are invariably scams, and this latest “Coles survey email” is no different.
This email campaign is a concerted effort that started on Friday, possibly to take advantage of people thinking about the weekend shopping. We have pulled one of the emails from our filter and display it as Figure A. As you can see, it is a pretty straightforward type of phish. It looks like a Coles type email. This email doesn’t use a greeting. There are three links contained in the email; they all lead to the same site. The subject line of the email is “Special: Snag a $50 Coles Gift Card!”
The email goes on to state that you can complete a short survey. Completion of the survey allows you to claim a Coles gift card to the value of $50. You can start this by clicking on the button inscribed with the text “Start Now!” This is one of three links contained in the email. The other two links are a standard removal from the email list. These two links are at the head and foot of the email.
This is yet another scam. The scam is aping a tactic used by legitimate marketing companies, where completion of a short survey allows you to claim a small gift or gift card. The main sign that this is a fake email are the links in the email. They do not link back to a Coles site. Instead they lead to a malicious site. This site is designed to steal your personal information, including (potentially) your bank account details.
Scott Reeves
MailShark
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