According to this Facebook post, fast food outlet Taco Bell is giving everyone who shares a link 2 free Big Bell Boxes for a month.
The post features an image that supposedly depicts a coupon for the free food. The image includes the Taco Bell logo.
However, the post has no connection to Taco Bell and those tricked into participating have no chance whatsoever of receiving a valid Taco Bell free meal coupon.
Instead, the post is a typical Facebook giveaway scam designed to gather your personal information on behalf of dodgy marketing companies.
If you click on the post, you will be taken to a bogus website that first asks you to complete a survey about your favourite Taco Bell meals. The site will then pretend to check your answers before declaring you a winner. In fact, all visitors are told that they have won, regardless of their survey answers.
Next, you will be told that you must now share the page on Facebook and add the comment”Thanks”. By doing so, you are helping the scammers promote their fake giveaway and exposing your Facebook friends to their fraudulent activities.
After you share and comment as instructed, you can then click the “claim” button. However, instead of opening a page where you can get the promised coupon, you will be taken to another website that offers the chance to win further prizes in exchange for providing your name and contact details.
However, the information you provide will be given to various marketing companies who will then flood you with unwanted and annoying promotional emails, text messages, phone calls, and letters.
And, alas, no matter how many sites you give your information to, you will never get your Taco Bell coupon.
In this case, the scammers have apparently altered an image from a McDonald’s version of the scam since it claims that the coupon is ‘valid at every McDonald restaurant in the United States”. Some commentators have also pointed out that, while the image in the scam post depicts glasses of Coke, Taco Bell in the US serves Pepsi products with its meals. However, for the record, some non-US Taco Bell franchises apparently do serve Coke.
This scam is just one among a constant stream of fake giveaways that flood Facebook. If one comes your way, don’t be tempted to participate.
A screenshot of the scam post:
A screenshot of the scam website:
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
