A shocking occurrence that’s currently making the headlines is a scam that involves giving away a pair of AirPods. What’s even more baffling is that it appears as if Amazon is giving it away for free. This Amazon AirPods raffle scam could lead you to extreme difficulty, as you might risk your Amazon account, as well as personal and financial data, unknowingly in longing for free AirPods.
This article will hand out every single detail you need to protect yourself from such scams, with insights into how such phishing scams haunt the digital space. So, without ado, let’s get straight to decrypting Amazon’s pod raffle scam.
What Do You Need To Know About Amazon AirPods Raffle Scam?
AirPods continues to remain the first choice for music listeners and also one of the highest selling products on Amazon. Recently, a scam has come to the notice that claims to give away a set of AirPods, not just any AirPod but Apple’s AirPods. Considering the price of this gadget, which is quite expensive, it’s very tempting for anyone. Let’s shed light on how this Amazon AirPods raffle scam operates.
Early this month, the Better Business Bureau(BBB) issued an alert regarding a scam that affirms giving away gifts from Amazon. It starts with customers of Amazon receiving a text message telling them that they are one of the raffle’s winners.
The message generally communicates that the winning price is a free pair of AirPods. Apart from AirPods, several other prices are offered such as Apple Watch and other gadgets.
The message then asks the recipient to click on a link to set up and confirm delivery of their price. Once, the person clicks on that link, they are redirected to a phishing website, in this case, to a fake AirPods and fake Amazon home page. This doesn’t just stop here, you’re again told to complete a survey, after which you will supposedly be eligible for your reward. The absolute goal of this survey is to gather information about you and your account. This valuable personal information is then used to hack your Amazon Account or commit other serious frauds. Thus the amazon airpod scam was generated.
Here is an example of what the text you might receive will look like:
Here is an example of Amazon airpods raffle scam – Congratulations! (The present date), you have been selected to participate in our survey. You will get exciting gifts within a few minutes. ( Price name) is given each Wednesday to the chosen fortunate 10 users. Today’s price is a ( whatever gift they might use to lure you) and you stand a chance to win it. Just, complete the survey that aims to improve the quality of service for our users and make it easy to deliver your price. You only have 4 minutes and 45 seconds left to answer this survey, hurry up! The number of prices are limited. ( List of questions)
What you just read was a typical example of a phishing scam, and similar is the case with Amazon AirPods Raffle.
In a nutshell, the scam is based on the temptation of getting a new pair of expensive Apple AirPods free of cost.
In response to this entire situation, Amazon filed a lawsuit over an AirPods brand and issued statements regarding the issue to warn their customers. Amazon also offers help in such cases, all you need to do is inform them. Amazon’s customer service will investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
How To Avoid The Amazon Raffle Scam?
One thing that we’ve made very clear at the beginning itself is that Amazon is not giving away free AirPods in a raffle. However, the more important question here is, how does one identify fake messages or websites to be secure from this type of amazon airpods raffle scam in the future?
The fake messages mostly appear authentic as they are sent from fake emails that seem like real emails from Amazon. And these emails always direct you to a false website that resembles Amazon’s original webpage. Then, you’re asked to give your Amazon User ID and password.
If you give away your account details, these websites can fetch all your sensitive information and use it to commit unlawful activities. So, what can you do to stop this from happening?
Never open an email if you are unsure about its authenticity. Also, avoid clicking on links or opening any attachments from these suspicious text messages or emails. In case you have opened it, quickly go to your Phone’s “Protect Your System” settings and activate it.
To further differentiate between a genuine email and a suspicious one, you should have a look at these pointers:
- In most phishing scams, they send you an email that links to a fake website that looks like the original one, but if you pay attention to the details, you can identify the errors. For example, legitimate Amazon websites always have a dot before “amazon.in”, something like HTTP://”something”.amazon. com. Any email which has been sent to you with links to an IP address(a string of numbers) is most likely to be fake.
- Amazon never contests any competition or lucky draw which requires you to pay to participate. So, make sure not to reveal your bank account information, PIN, OTP, or credit card number to anyone or anywhere.
- The most common mistake made by phishers is they make a whole lot of typographical errors. This happens because these phishers usually translate from one language to another without making it read-proof. Therefore, you must look out for poor grammar or any typing mistakes while reading the message.
The crux of this entire article is that we encourage you to ignore this viral Amazon AirPods Raffle. Stay safe out there!