The phony coupon shows up in your Facebook feed.
“LOWE’S is giving Free $50 coupons for EVERYONE! to celebrate Mother’s Day!” it reads.
Sound too good to be true? That’s because it is.
The coupon certainly looks like the real thing, but it’s a scam. Lowe’s is warning customers to disregard it.
If you click on the coupon in Facebook, it takes you to a website with an official-looking Lowe’s logo.
There’s a short “survey” there that you have to fill out to get this supposed $50 coupon.
Don’t fill it out. It’s a scheme to get you to reveal personal information.
How to Tell if a Deal is Too Good to be True
Man, this kind of thing is scary. The fake coupon looks really real. How are you supposed to know what’s legit and what’s a scam?
Well, for starters: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Listen to the alarms your common sense and B.S. detector are setting off. A coupon for a whopping $50 off that’s available to everyone on Facebook is probably way too good to be true. That would be a lot of money for Lowe’s to shell out.
The Better Business Bureau has some useful tips to help you spot and avoid falling victim to fake online coupons like this one. Here are some of the best:
- Don’t believe what you see. It’s easy for scammers to steal the colors and logos of any business or organization.
- Legitimate businesses don’t ask for credit card numbers or banking information for coupons or giveaways.
- When in doubt, do a quick web search. If the giveaway is a scam, this is likely to reveal an alert or bring you to the organization’s real website, where it may have posted additional information.
- Watch out for a reward that’s too good to be true. Businesses typically give out small discounts to entice customers. If the offer seems too good to be true (a $100 voucher or 50% discount), it may be a scam.
- Look for a mismatched subject line and email body. Many of these scams have an email subject line promising one thing, but the content of the email is something else.
Your turn: Have you seen this fake Lowe’s coupon?
Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He hates scams.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2piXCqk
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