ALERT! – Costco Free Grocery Scam – ALERT!

Published On December 2, 2020 | By Tom Huskerson | Alerts, News and Analysis, Now You Know

Holiday season is full of scams and here comes another. No Costco is not offering free grocery boxes in exchange for an online survey.

It all started a few days ago when a Facebook page supposedly belonging to Costco offered a free grocery box to anyone who shared and commented on their post. The message was not written by Costco’s CEO Craig Jelinek. But here is common scam clue; Jelinek’s name was misspelled “Jelinekand” in this scam Facebook post. Typos by scam artist are fairly common.

The post said “My name is Craig Jelinekand I’m the CEO of Costco Inc. To celebrate our 35th Birthday every single person who shares and comments in the next 24hrs will get one of these Christmas Food Box delivered straight to their door on Monday 30th November. Each Food box contains groceries worth of $250 and a $35 Costco voucher. Make sure you validate your entry. Limit 1 Food box per person.”

Here is another clue. The message never appeared on Costco’s official page. This scam was shared by an imposter Facebook page. The scammers also posted an identical version of this scam in November targeting Aldi customers.

If you were alert you would have noticed that the “free Costco grocery box” scam did not originate on Costco’s Facebook page. Scammers are very clever creatures. The scam message was actually shared an a webpage labeled “Costco US” whereas Costco’s real page is just “Costco.com” So make sure you check that web address when you see these incredible offers.

As always you can detect a scam by asking yourself “Is it too good to be true?” But if you still can’t decide here are a few tips from the Better Business Bureau;

  1. Don’t believe what you see. Websites are easy to replicate. It’s easy to steal the colors, logos, and header of any other established organization. Scammers can also make links look like they lead to legitimate websites and emails appear to come from a different sender.
  2. Legitimate businesses do not ask for credit card numbers or banking information for coupons or giveaways. If they do ask for personal information, like an address or email, be sure there’s a link to their privacy policy.
  3. When in doubt, do a quick web search. If the giveaway is a scam, this is likely to reveal an alert or bring you to the organization’s real website, where they may have posted further information.
  4. Watch out for a reward that’s too good to be true. Businesses typically give out small discounts to entice customers. If the offer seems too good to be true (a $100 voucher or 50% discount) it may be a scam.
  5. Look for a mismatched subject line and email body. Many of these scams have an email subject line promising one thing, but the content of the email is something completely different.

Now you know.

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About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

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