Cape Town - A ’competition’ in which participants were encouraged to click on links and provide personal details in order to win up to R4 000 as a prize in celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of Food Lover’s Market, has been exposed as a phishing scam.
The scam itself has been widely forwarded via the WhatsApp platform as a link. Once clicked, it invites the reader to complete a questionnaire to stand a chance of winning R4 000.
After being alerted to the scam, Food Lover’s Market posted a notice on all its social media pages warning customers about it.
Food Lover’s Market spokesperson Mirella Gastaldi said as the platform is WhatsApp, it’s very hard to trace the origins of the scam in order to block it.
“Food Lover’s Market will not hesitate to bring criminal charges, should we be able to trace the origin of the scam. This is a scam and we implore our consumers not to click on this link or share it under any circumstances.
“The company is not celebrating its 30th birthday, the competition is completely fraudulent and did not originate from Food Lover’s Market or any of its partners,
“If you receive a link via a messaging platform, claiming to be from Food Lover’s Market, do not click on it, rather contact our customer care to confirm the legitimacy of the competition. We will never ask you for payment of any kind in order to access a prize. Neither will we ever ask you for bank details,” said Gastaldi.
South Africa's Wireless Application Service Providers' Association (Waspa) said such scams were in contravention of the Direct Marketing Association code.
WASPA Code of Conduct head Jacqui Jones said: “I think that the sharing of personal information across any digital platform is something that should not be taken lightly, and certainly something that consumers should approach with caution.
“A lot of the messages tell you you’ve either won money or you should claim a prize or inheritance. With this in mind, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” said Jones.