We all love gift cards, especially if we can get them for free. That’s why scammers tend to offer free gift cards around Black Friday, when they know people are eager to save as much money as possible. If you want to avoid falling for their trap, look out for these glaring warning signs.
Never Trust Anything Free With No Strings Attached
I wish the world wasn’t like this, but the reality is that very few people are interested in giving you anything of value for free. This is especially true of businesses, which operate with the explicit goal of making money. When you receive a message or email offering you a supposedly free gift card, you have to ask yourself: what benefit does the person giving me this get?
If it’s a real business, they’re basically just giving away profit. If it’s a scammer, well… if they get you to give them personal information, they can use that to make a lot of money for themselves. There are some things in life that are free, but gift cards rarely fall into that category.
Ignore Texts and Emails From Unknown Sources
It’s impossible to know everyone on the internet, but you probably aren’t going to be offered free gift cards by strangers or companies that you don’t recognize. Scammers don’t operate with official emails, phone numbers, or accounts, but still often pretend to be or represent companies. This usually means that you won’t recognize the numbers or emails they are using.
If you get a fishy message—be it email, text, or something else—from a source you don’t recognize, the safest thing to do is ignore it. Sure, maybe there’s a one in ten thousand chance that the offer was legitimate, and you could have gotten a free gift card, but do you really want to take that risk? Just play it safe.
Do Not Click On Any Links From Unverified Sources
Speaking of things you might get from sources you don’t recognize, many of the messages from strangers offering you a free gift card will include a link of some sort for you to click on. Allegedly, these links will take you to the place of sunshine and rainbows where the free gift cards live. Needless to say, this is never the reality.
A few things might happen when you click on that link, but none of them are good. To start, your device may be immediately infected with malware. If that doesn’t happen, the link may take you to a website that actually appears legitimate, and on this website, you will likely be asked to provide information so you can get your free gift cards.
Any information you provide will go directly to the scammer, which they will then use for nefarious purposes. They may sell your data to someone else. They may use it to try and hack into other accounts you have on other platforms. Or they might just rob you. Either way, you should never click on a suspicious link from a suspicious sender.
If you’re really curious, there are a few ways you can check the legitimacy of a link before you click on it.
Never Provide Personal or Financial Information Over Text
Really, this is good advice to follow no matter what, as there are many scams that occur over text, not just gift card scams. The reality of the matter is that legitimate businesses are not going to try and get your personal or financial information over text. It’s not professional, it’s not secure, and it doesn’t paint them in a very good light.
So if you get a text message from someone that asks you to provide personal or financial information, you should probably steer clear of it, regardless of who the sender claims to be. Think about it: when was the last time Amazon, Walmart, or Target asked you for that kind of information over text?
That’s a bit too suspicious, and you would do well to never, ever provide that kind of information over text. No one legitimate is ever going to ask you for that kind of information.
Call the Alleged Offering Company to Confirm
If you receive a message offering a free gift card that is supposedly coming from a legitimate company, go out of your way to contact the real company and ask them about it. Their customer service will inform you quite quickly whether or not the offering is legitimate. Spoiler alert: it almost never is.
That said, not all companies are keen to give you the information you want or even the time of day. I know I’ve called companies before about scammers masquerading as them, only to never get a response. Still, it never hurts to call the real deal and see if the offer you are getting is really legitimate. If they never answer you, it goes back to just playing it safe again.
Of course, you have to be wary of companies calling you as well, as that’s not always legitimate either.
Don’t Click on Ads That Promise Free Gifts
Not all scammers will try to come directly to you with an email or a text message. In many cases, they will instead just lay out a passive trap in the form of ads promising nice things like free gifts. That said, an ad scam doesn’t really work much differently than other direct message phishing scams. At the end of the day, clicking on the ad will be bad news for you.
Either one, it’ll infect your device with malware, or two, it’ll lead you to another fake website that is trying to get you to input your information so the hacker can use it to cause huge trouble for you. You’ve probably been around the internet long enough to know what suspicious ads look like, but these days, scammers are pretty good at making things look real.
Which is why, ultimately, you really just need to adhere to the same logic as before. If something is too good to be true, it usually is. Even if the ad looks real, it probably isn’t, and you probably won’t be getting anything for free without any strings attached. Really, it’s pretty dangerous to go around clicking on ads on the internet anyway.
Unfortunately, there is no special secret defense that will protect you from gift card scams this holiday season. In the end, it mostly comes down to your own prudence and wariness. That said, there are legitimate places you can go to buy gift cards, even if you won’t be getting them for free. Still, that’s better than getting robbed.
