Sainsbury’s warn customers against this £250 gift voucher scam on WhatsApp
A MESSAGE doing the rounds on WhatsApp offering customers £250 of Sainsbury's vouchers in return for completing a survey has been branded fake by the supermarket.
Customers have been warned not to do or share a survey sent in a WhatsApp message that's been spamming people's accounts on the messaging service.
The message asks customers to fill in a survey and then send the link on to ten friends in exchange for a £250 Sainsbury's gift voucher.
But it's been revealed that the message is actually from cyber thieves hoping to gain personal data from unsuspecting WhatsApp users. A similar scam hit Sainsbury's customers last year, offering £100 vouchers for the store.
People have been taking to Twitter to vent their frustration at the supermarket chain for sending out messages, only to be told by the shopping giant that the texts aren't from them and are most likely spam.
A message from Sainsbury's official Twitter account said: "This isn't an official Sainsbury's communication and you should ignore/ delete it without replying."
Unfortunately, some people have already fallen victim to the scam.
One frustrated customer tweeted: "So I filled in your survey for £250, sent a whatsapp to 10 friends as asked and then got an error message!"
Despite the fact that the URL link in the text appears to send people to the official Sainsbury's website, it is actually a fake webpage designed to trick people using WhatsApp into submitting their person details.
Clicking on the link will download cookies or browser extensions on the victim's smartphone, which can be used to place more adverts in front of them and generate ad revenue for the cyber criminals behind the scam.
Speaking to the Express ESET security specialist Mark James said people often fall for these types of scams without recognising the dangers.
He added: "They are usually presented with an offer of freebies with little or no effort on their own behalf.
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"Once on the page all manner of malware could potentially await them, this could include but is not limited to potential phishing attacks to obtain your personal or private information, installation of malware, harvesting your details for spam attacks or displaying inappropriate pictures or videos."
Recently WhatsApp users were warned the app will stop running on millions of phones and it has also been revealed that Facebook can read your private conversations on the app.