Outline:
Facebook post claims that Walmart is giving away a $100 coupon to EVERYONE this Christmas and urges you to click to get your free coupon now.
Analysis:
The claims in the post are untrue. Those who click will never get the promised coupon. The post is not associated with Walmart in any way and, despite the claims, those responsible for the post have no free Walmart coupons to give away.
In fact, the post is a typical Facebook scam designed to trick you into first spamming your friends with the same fake giveaway and then supplying your personal information on scam survey websites.
This video from the Hoax-Slayer YouTube Channel discusses a survey scam that promises participants the chance to win a Range Rover. Whether it be cars, holidays, airline tickets, or store coupons, the underlying scam is the same.
There are many scams like this on Facebook and new versions appear every day.
Refer to the following resources for further details about such scams:
What is a Facebook Survey Scam?
Survey Scam List
Clicking the link in the scam post loads the fraudulent website depicted in the following screenshot:
Last updated: December 18, 2016
First published: December 18, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
Hoax-Slayer on YouTube
Costco “Free $250 Coupon” Facebook Survey Scam
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
