Facebook Argos Scam Joins Spate of Voucher Hoaxes

Those of you thinking you’ve found the holy grail of offers, £500 in free Asda and/or Argos vouchers for Christmas by visiting a Facebook page, we’re sad to say it’s a scam.

Facebook scammers have started to exploit Christmas shoppers early this year, with posts on users walls inviting their friends to claim free vouchers. The one which is most common seems to be free vouchers for Argos, although there are scams for Pizza Hut vouchers, Asda vouchers, Starbucks, Tim Hortons and plenty more floating about.

The sneaky thing about the Argos voucher scam is that it appears to be a genuine message on your friends wall, it reads “Thanks!” then ‘Free £500 Argos gift cards for Christmas’. I’ve seen friends discussing this, so it clearly works as a hoax/scam. It asks you to visit a site, with some requesting you like the page which spreads it to other friends.

There is also a similar scam using Asda vouchers, the post reads “shop free as Asda – FREE Asda gift card” with some blurb about it being their birthday. Again this is just a rouse to get users to their sites.

What’s the risk?

Most of the scams lead you to the scammers websites, or to a link which earns them money. Some links ask you to fill in a survey, which the scammers get paid for but you don’t. Some scams harvest your personal details, whilst others may contain vicious malware which can infect your computer.

The advice here is simple, if it looks too good to be true then it probably is. It’s best to avoid anything like this on Facebook, if you are unsure on whether a deal is legit contact the brand directly.

If you have taken part, or notice these links popping up on your profile we’d suggest deleting the post and/or unliking the scam page. If you are unsure a quick message to Facebook security couldn’t hurt either.

Have you seen any other scams, or know anyone with this on their wall?