Note: A 2019 version of this scam is now circulating. For details, see:
Facebook Scam Post Promises EVERYONE Free Pizza From Little Caesars
A post being shared on Facebook is claiming that pizza chain Little Caesars is giving EVERYONE 3 free large pizzas as a means of celebrating the company’s 59th anniversary.
The post features a Little Caesars-branded image that supposedly depicts a coupon for the free pizzas.
Here’s a screenshot of one of the scam posts:
However, the post is fraudulent and is not associated with Little Caesars in any way. People who participate in the supposed giveaway will never receive the promised free pizza coupon.
Little Caesars has dismissed the giveaway as fraudulent via a post on the company’s official Facebook Page.
If you click on the fake giveaway post, you will be taken to a bogus website that offers congratulations for gaining the chance to get free pizzas. It asks you to complete a short survey to claim your prize:
No matter what answers you give, you will always be chosen as a “winner”. After completing the survey you will be taken to a second web page that instructs you to share on Facebook and add the comment “Thank you for my Pizza”.
Completing this step effectively promotes the scam across Facebook and exposes all of your Facebook friends to the scam as well.
After you have shared and commented as instructed, you will be presented with a list of links to click. You’ll be told that you must click one of the links and follow the instructions to get your free pizza coupon.
The links open various highly suspect websites that promise the chance to win further prizes in exchange for providing your personal information. However, if you proceed, you are in fact giving the site permission to share your information with “site sponsors” and dodgy marketing companies.
So, you will soon be inundated with unwanted phone calls, text messages, emails, and letters promoting a range of dodgy products and services. In some cases, you may inadvertently sign yourself up to an expensive SMS or newsletter subscription that will charge several dollars to your account each time they send you a message.
Little Caesars has been targeted before in such giveaway scams as have countless other well-known brands and companies around the world. Be wary of any Facebook post that promises prizes just for sharing, liking, commenting, and filling in surveys.
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
