On this Facebook post, a fake account impersonating the Darty brand offers a false promotion. It’s a scam – Screenshot – TH
- Numerous publications on Facebook invite users to participate in contests to win robot cookers and two-euro scooters in the name of the Lidl and Darty brands.
- These offers have no connection with the two brands, which denounced scams to 20 minutes.
- Participating in one of these contests runs the risk of providing your personal and banking information to fraudsters, in addition to making you subscribe to a paid subscription. Beware!
A superb electric scooter worth 450 euros for only 2 euros? The food processor you’ve been dreaming of for just 1.99 euros? Are you tempted? It’s a scam! Multiple tempting offers, shared en masse on Facebook in recent days, offer users to win branded products at discounted prices.
We had already alerted you to the presence of fake Leclerc and Action vouchers on social networks. This time, it is the Lidl and Darty brands that are targeted. The first would be forced to liquidate its Monsieur Cuisine Connect robots, star of the household appliance, after losing a lawsuit. While the second would have suddenly decided to offer its customers incredible promotions (more than 99% reduction, nothing more normal).
In addition to exposing you to phishing, – or phishing, a technique used online by fraudsters to collect your personal data and use it without your knowledge – these malicious promotions risk making you subscribe to an automatic subscription of sometimes more than 60 euros per month. Here is why you should beware of it!
FAKE OFF
Contacted, Darty and Lidl’s communications departments quickly confirmed to 20 minutes that they were not at the origin of these promotional offers and contests and that they are scams.
The Lidl sign added that online sales were only possible for wines and spirits on its platform and that if contests were organized, they would be distributed by an official and certified account. She also specifies that if Lidl did indeed lose a lawsuit in Spain against Vorwek, the manufacturer of a robot competing with that of the discount brand, that had “no impact on the French market. “
False comments and contests
Whatever the publications on social networks, the links systematically lead to unsecured and frankly dubious sites. The two scams using exactly the same method, we will thus concentrate on that of the “Monsieur Cuisine” at two euros.
By following the link put forward by the Facebook publication, we arrive on a site called “smluntan.info” which displays, in the header, the acronym of the discount brand. Further down, the page invites the user to answer a series of three questions (“Do you often cook at home?”, “Have you heard of Silvercrest products?”, Etc.) to launch their participation in the “game”. contest ”and try to get his gift.
This serves to give credibility to the scam. Obviously, in a real competition, not everyone wins, so we try to give you the illusion that you can lose. Below, a dozen Facebook comments automatically generated or written by fake accounts reassure you on the contrary by affirming that it worked for them and that they have received their due.
Fortunately, the lack of meaning, grammar mistakes, and syntax mistakes should help you spot them easily. “I placed an order four days ago. delivery is very long – but I have a new multicooker. thank you lidl ”, is it for example possible to read on the page.
Banking information and hidden subscriptions
By continuing the steps we are redirected to another web page called “Idtracknews”. This is when the scam can take a bad turn. The page asks you to enter your personal information, then your credit card data in order to pay the two euros required. If you do, you will take out a hidden subscription in addition to giving your banking information to a scammer.
In pale gray on a white background and in very small font, it is indeed marked in a corner of the web page that “this special offer comes with a trial period of 3 days for an affiliate subscription service” and that “after this period, monthly subscription payments (€ 65.85) will be automatically debited from your credit card”. You then have three days to cancel your subscription before it is automatically charged.
The fraudulent practice of the hidden subscription has been the subject of a information sheet of the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control. She advises you in particular to be wary of too tempting offers that you cannot find in the shops and to check that the legal notices of a website are present at the bottom of the page.
If you take out a hidden subscription, you must cancel your subscription by mail or online, request reimbursement of previous monthly payments, and contact your bank advisor. You can also file a complaint with the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP) or report the website to the “Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr” platform.