Aldi shoppers urged to steer clear of fake £85 vouchers as scammers flood Facebook with ‘free coupons’
SHOPPERS have been urged to steer clear of fake £85 Aldi vouchers being flooded by scammers on Facebook.
The supermarket has deemed the "free coupons" as "fraudulent" and are warning customers not to share their personal details.
The coupons appear to be offering £85 off the customer's next grocery shop and claims to be in celebration of the supermarket's 55th anniversary.
It's thought the scam, which first emerged online last year, could plague computers with nasty viruses.
Clicking on the link directs you to a survey page, which you are then asked to share on your social media pages.
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This then spams all of your friends with the same offer and the vicious cycle continues.
A tweet on Aldi's account this afternoon said: "ALERT: We are aware that there is a hoax £65 Aldi voucher being circulated. This voucher is fraudulent and cannot be redeemed in store. 1/2.
"Aldi UK will never ask you to share your personal details via a website to redeem a genuine voucher offer. This is being investigated."
Excited at the prospect of saving some cash, Facebook users have been sharing the fake offer in their droves.
Users have even drawn their friends directly to the bogus offer by tagging them in the post.
Some internet victims may have also been struck with annoying malware and viruses that are damaging to computers and laptops.
None of the Facebook users who have applied for the coupon have been given any money off their next shop.
An Aldi spokesperson said: “The hoax £65 Aldi vouchers being circulated online are fraudulent and cannot be redeemed in stores.
"We have not and would never ask customers to submit personal information via a website in return for vouchers. We advise customers to ignore these adverts and not to share any personal information.”
Aldi was previously hit by a bogus scam and warned customers to be vigilant.
Similar scams that have hoodwinked unsuspecting shoppers are from Waitrose, SPAR and LIDL.
Whatsapp users have also been warned to delete scam messages masquerading as high street voucher deals worth up to £100.
It emerged a message was doing the rounds on the messaging app offering customers £250 of Sainsbury’s vouchers in return for completing a survey.
Mark James, security specialist at ESET, says these scams have been around for a while and show no sign of slowing.
“There tends to be a high degree of success, if they never worked they would not still be doing the rounds which proves that generally we are not learning and continuing to fall foul of these types of attacks,” he said.
It comes as Aldi revealed its tills are 40 per cent quicker than rivals, which is part of the supermarket's plans to be as efficient as possible.
This helps keeps costs low for shoppers, the budget chain claims.
How to protect yourself from scams
FIRSTLY, remember that if something seems too good to be true, it normally is.
Check brands are "verified" on Facebook and Twitter pages - this means the company will have a blue tick on their profile.
Look for grammatical and spelling errors; fraudsters are notoriously bad at writing proper English. If you receive a message from a “friend” informing you of a freebie, consider whether it’s written in your friend’s normal style.
If you’re invited to click on an URL, hover over the link to see the address it will take you to – does it look genuine?
To be on the really safe side, don’t click on unsolicited links in messages, even if they appear to come from a trusted contact.
Be careful when opening email attachments too. Fraudsters are increasingly attaching files, usually PDFs or spreadsheets, which contain dangerous malware.
If you receive a suspicious message then report it to the company, block the sender and delete it.
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