In the March 14th Scam of the day I told you about phony Pfizer surveys that appeared to be offering prizes worth a minimum of $90 merely for answering a few questions about your experience with the vaccine.  When I originally told you about this scam it was turning up primarily on Facebook.  Now people are getting emails and text messages that appear to come from either Pfizer, AstraZeneca or, as in the case of the phony message copies below, from Moderna.  It is interesting that all of these scam messages and emails offer a prize valued the same.  Victims of the scam who answer the questions are asked to pay for shipping fees by supplying their credit card or debit card number.  This is a scam and you shouldn’t click on the link or provide the information.  In other instances, merely clicking on a link even if you do not provide any of the requested information can download dangerous malware that can lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft or being cheated out of money.

TIPS

The first thing to remember is that no legitimate survey asks for credit card or debit card information in order to pay for a “free” reward.  Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.  Never provide personal information in response to an email, phone call or text message unless you absolutely confirmed that the communication was legitimate and there is a need to provide the information.  Whenever you are contacted by phone, text message or email, you can never be sure who really is contacting you.  For the same reasons, never click on a link unless you have also confirmed that the communication was legitimate.  Of course, you should have strong security software for all of your electronic devices, but it is important to remember that the most up to date security software is always at least a month behind the latest strains of malware.

One of the reasons I have advised people not to post their vaccination cards on social media is because when you do, you alert scammers that you have been vaccinated which allows them to send you such surveys as described above which may seem legitimate because you have recently gotten a shot of their vaccine.

Finally, if you wish to confirm whether or not these companies are doing legitimate surveys, all you need to do is to go to their respective websites where you will find that these surveys are all scams.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”  Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

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