As you can well expect, many scams are perpetrated through social media.  One current scam appearing on social media uses a fake endorsement of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to scam people who think they are getting free upscale cookware, but instead become a scam victim.  Posts like the one shown below promise a free set of HexClad cookware in return for merely paying $9.95 for shipping and handling.  The particular scam ad shown below appears to be a story from Fox News, but it is fake.  Anyone responding to the posts which have appeared on Facebook and elsewhere are taken to a website where they need to provide their credit card number to cover the $9.95 shipping and handling cost, however, anyone providing their credit card number will soon find that there card gets charged for much more than $9.95 and they never receive any cookware or anything other than a lesson in being scammed.

TIPS

Of course, anything too good to be true is generally not true and the offer of expensive cookware for free should immediately arouse skepticism.  In cases such as this, if you had any thought that the offer might be legitimate you should confirm the offer by going to the website of the endorser and the company involved.  If the offer was in any way legitimate, it would appear on the websites of both the endorser and the maker of the product.  In this case you could go to Gordon Ramsay’s website http://www.gordonramsay.com or HexClad’s website of hexclad.com.

Finally, whenever you buy anything whether on line or in a brick an mortar store do not use your debit card.  The laws that protect you from liability for fraudulent use of your credit card are far stronger for credit cards than debit cards.

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive  free daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”