Woolworths Groceries Voucher Email Scam
Yet another gift voucher scam attempt has attempted to reach inboxes in the form of a Woolworths groceries voucher email. It claims to provide you with a $150 voucher to spend at the Australian supermarket. Woolworths (locally known as Woolies) is a grocery / supermarket chain in Australia. Keep reading to find out more about this malicious scam attempt to infect your computer with malware.
Figure A is a copy of the Woolworths groceries voucher email scam in question. It is branded to suit Woolworths but is overall not enticing to look at. The subject line reads “Woolworths groceries voucher worth $150.00”, which is the first tactic used to get you to open the email out of interest. The sender is shown as “Woolworths Vouchers” but the email address used is clearly spam and in no way associated to the official Woolworths website. Some points to look out for in this email scam attempt proving its true nature include:
- Poor grammar
- Lack of personal greeting
- Multiple malicious links (you can see the destination of a link safely by hovering over it with your mouse and not clicking)
- Clear and pushy call to actions and language
- Fake spam / email marketing terms at the bottom of the email
Figure B shows the malicious web page you will land on if any of the links in the email are clicked. This page is outdated and poorly branded. It shows the voucher and even has a timer and a fake amount of vouchers left to win, to push you to click through quicker. The page has a form asking you to fill in your details – doing so will lead to a malware infection. Do not click anywhere on this website and close it immediately.
The play and ‘x’ buttons towards the bottom are another attempt to get you to click, it is tricking you into thinking there is a video to be played.
We strongly suggest deleting any emails that reach your inbox claiming to give away free gift vouchers, especially if they contain any of the spam identifier points above. If you have fallen for this scam run your anti-virus software immediately. Every computer that uses the internet should have anti-virus software installed for security reasons and to protect your personal data.
Steph Kent
MailShark
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