For more than a month, a scam has been regularly returning to Facebook, promising free bicycles because they are slightly damaged. This is obviously a way for scammers to steal personal data.
It’s a well-thought-out scam that has been actively circulating on Facebook for over a month. The “Decathlon FANS” page, with the colors of the sports franchise, promises “donations” of hundreds of mountain bikes “which cannot be sold for small scratches”.
According to the message, all you need to do is post your favorite color in the comments and the lucky winners will be drawn. The scam has been regularly returning to Facebook since Voice of the North he had already mentioned this case at the end of August. In recent days the message has reappeared, sparking an avalanche of comments in an attempt to win the mountain bike.
This is obviously a scam as the page moderator systematically responds to comments to fill out an online form to get the profit. In other cases it is simply a matter of subscribing to the Facebook page – which will later be transformed to launch phishing in the best possible way – or even sharing the “offer” on one’s own active groups.
A recent Facebook post – still online – had a total of 1.2 million comments and nearly 20,000 shares. The latest, published on September 14, already had 800 comments.
The scam also appears in other languages, in English or even in Portuguese.
Not a first time
Decathlon has already warned against this scam. The Belgian branch therefore alerted last month of these fake gifts. “We have reported malicious pages to affected social networks. If you have been exposed to these pages, report them as ‘spam’,” the company wrote on its Facebook page.
Contacted by Zataz.comthe parent company specifies that “its legal teams are currently in contact with Facebook to put an end to these actions”.
This is not the first time that the Decathlon brand has been used for a scam. Last year the promise of a 1000 euro gift card was already circulated on social media and on WhatsApp. To protect yourself from these scams and phishing in general, it is best to be wary of offers that are too good to be true. You can also find in our article the best practices to avoid scams on social networks.
—
