Over the years, I’ve been proud of myself that I had never fallen for any of the numerous scams that are found on the internet. That was until last month when I was caught hook, line and sinker on one that I could have easily avoided.
The day before it occurred, I had been shopping at Costco. On the following day, I received what looked like an actual email from Costco, stating that they had a surprise for me. That I had been selected to get an exclusive reward. To qualify for this special offer, I had to simply complete a 30-second marketing survey about my shopping experience.
Even though these scams appear to be legit, with all the proper insignias, I can usually discover that it’s a scam by just checking the email address. Scammers will often try to mask who they are by using an official name, but they can’t fake their email address as easily. Legit organizations have official email addresses. If the “From” email address is from Gmail, Outlook, or others, it’s usually a scam.
Coincidentally, since the email came the day after I was at Costco I assumed it was a legit survey and I neglected to check the email address.
In return for answering the short survey, I was offered the choice of three free gifts. All I had to do was pay the delivery charge. There was an attachment in small print of terms and conditions. I assumed this was…
