Coles survey email is a phish

Another scam involving so-called free vouchers emerged this week. A $50 Coles gift card is promised if the recipient of the email fills out a survey. This is another phishing email, and should be deleted. The email is shown in Figure A.

The email starts off by promising a “50$” voucher when the recipient fills out the survey. Links are provided, however, mousing over the links reveals that they are not from Coles.

Marketing companies often use free vouchers or gift cards as an inducement to recipients to complete surveys. This makes the Coles phish fairly believable. Adding to the realism is the subject matter of the survey, which is a customer satisfaction survey.

In this phish, the user is lead to a site that asks questions on their shopping experience, and then asks for some details to (supposedly) verify the person completing the survey. One of the details required is often a credit card number; in several instances people have been tricked, and later found that their credit card has been used for fraudulent activity.

Even worse is the so-called gift card supplied at the end of the bogus survey. The gift card can be printed out, but it is has no value at Coles (or anywhere else for that matter). Several instances have occurred where people have taken the printed cards into Coles and found them to be worthless.

The one big hint that this is a phish is the line that reads “claim 50$ in Coles rewards!”. The other indications are the links, which are not to Coles.

If you receive this email delete it. Be wary of other emails requesting you to fill out a survey for gift cards or other rewards, unless you can verify the bona fides of the sender.

Scott Reeves
MailShark
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