Everything You Need to Know about Easter Egg Hunt Scams

Alas! Easter is (nearly) upon us! Aren’t we all anticipating the Easter egg, candy, and chocolate hunt? I'm sure you are! So, don't expect con artists to exercise restraint just because it's the holiday season. Be on the lookout for this week's easter egg hunt phishing scams! Read on to find out about Easter Egg Hunt Scams in 2023 and how to protect yourself.

How do Easter Egg Hunt scams work?

In most cases, users are tricked into clicking on a link by the promise of free chocolates. These links take consumers to a phishing website where their personal data is stolen. Scammers might employ a number of strategies, such as building bogus websites or sending phony emails or messages, to get victims to part with their cash or personal information.

Last year, Cadbury made a statement about their famed Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt being used to defraud people. You can read all about it here.

This year, the trend seems to continue with some fraudsters using old tricks to scam people. In most cases, scammers use social media to propagate their scams where they promise to give away Cadbury products worth £1,000.

Source: Myantispyware

However, if you click the link, you will be redirected to another website where they will steal your bank or credit card information. Most of the sites you will be redirected to usually end in the Russian domain extension “ru” such as “urltiny.ru”.  As if that’s not enough, they will ask you to forward the message on WhatsApp to 20 of your friends. That’s how they spread their craft to many other people and steal their data for social engineering schemes. 

Easter Egg Scam, Florida Style

Over in Florida, USA, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Jimmy Patronis is warning people against Easter egg scams that got people by surprise. In this instance, fraudsters promise people to deliver Easter eggs outside their homes on Easter morning. However, on the said day, the eggs are nowhere to be found and the scammers don’t refund the money. The CFO urges Floridians to be vigilant and report such cases to FraudFreeFlorida.com.

How to Protect Yourself from Easter Egg Hunt Scams

Though scammers continue to design new tricks each day, you can always stay one step ahead by following these steps;

• Ignore too-good-to-be-true offers: When an egg hunt sounds too good or too easy to find, it probably is a scam. Avoid such at all costs!
• Avoid clicking on every link you find: Scammers are counting on you to click on the links being shared on social media and text message forwards. That’s how they get access to your sensitive information.
• Counter-check the links: Fraudsters will always impersonate popular brands such as Cadbury. Ensure that you are on the right website by double-checking the URL. Even the slightest of changes like an extra letter or a dash should be treated with caution. A ".ru" at the end of a URL, for example, indicates that the link you believed was an official Cadbury UK website was actually established in Russia.
• Pay carefully: To make transactions online, use a credit card only for those sites you know and trust. Never share credit card details online unless you are 100% sure that the site is legitimate.

Also, install the ScamAdviser browser extension to warn you of scams. Happy Easter!

Image source: Unsplash.com