This article is from Trend Micro.
Scammers have recently been impersonating the two biggest pharmacy store chains in the US — CVS and Walgreens — and sending out innumerable amounts of scam text messages. Keep on reading to learn why these messages are dangerous and how you can protect yourself against them.
Over the last week, we’ve detected massive numbers of CVS survey scam text messages spreading all over the US, with California, Texas, and New York targeted most heavily. Below are two examples of what these messages look like.
Source: Reddit
Source: Reddit
All the messages we’ve observed share the same goal: to get the victim to click on the included link (blurred in the images above). They do so by offering people the chance to win a gift card or some other form of “compensation”.
When clicked on, the links lead to a fake CVS survey page (shown below).
At present, the survey page doesn’t do anything except waste victims’ time — after all 16 questions have been answered, the survey just loops back to the first question, with no chance to claim the advertised prize.
However, survey scams such as this will commonly request victims’ personal information, including their full name, address, Social Security number, credit card number, and lots more. The scammers can use this information to commit any number of cybercrimes, such as targeted phishing attacks and identity theft.
Also, just because the website is relatively harmless now doesn’t mean the scammers won’t update it down the road with more malicious capabilities.
To learn more about CVS scams, click here to visit the CVS website.
CVS survey scam sample SMS content:
This Walgreens survey scam uses the same tactics (and even the same website template!) as the CVS scam above.
However, unlike the CVS survey scam, this Walgreens version does prompt people to enter their personal information — and lots of it, too.
After they’ve answered all 16 questions, they’re asked to complete the form below so they can claim their (non-existent) prize — although they still need to pay for shipping.
Of course, any information entered onto this site will be sent directly to the scammers and no gift will ever be delivered. Watch out!
Walgreens survey scam sample SMS content:
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Source: pexels.com