Costco Is Warning Its Customers About These 13 Online Scams

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Costco offers shoppers many ways to save money, and sometimes those deals can be found online. But the warehouse chain is raising awareness about several scams floating around the internet right now promising customers free products and coupons.

The fraudulent Costco scams come from fake satisfaction surveys, Facebook Posts, texts, offers, emails, giveaways, job interviews, and more. Typically the creators use these methods to engage in things like credit card theft, capturing login credentials, and identity theft, according to online security provider Norton.

One Costco scam promises participating in a 30-second survey gets you exclusive rewards amounting to over $500. Another tells customers that since they pay their bills on time, they are eligible for a free Samsung 4K HDTV. And another uses a text with a link to get people to click on a 2% cash reward redemption. To see the full list of the scams with pictures, head to Costco's website.

"These offers are not from Costco Wholesale," the chain says on its website. "You should not visit any links provided in messages such as these, and you should not provide the sender any personal information."

https://www.eatthis.com/news-13-online-costco-scams/

[FakeNoose]

1. Does Costco have that many members who would fall for these scams?

Since I've never been a member of Costco, any ad or fake ad sent to me would immediately go into the Spam file and get deleted. However apparently enough people are members, and they're falling for these scam/fake ads.

My goodness! Many of them are obviously fake and horribly done. The others might take a little detective work. I've received fake emails and scam ads for Amazon. They're so obvious.

[marybourg]

2. As we age, we sometimes slide into mild cognitive decline.

It obviously hasn’t begun to happen to you, or apparently to anyone near you. But it happens a lot.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. +1

[Drunken Irishman]

4. 98 million members in 2019. That's a lot of potential, unfortunately.

[FakeNoose]

6. Wow I had no idea

I don't think even Amazon has that many customers. I guess buying a membership at Costco is sort of like buying Amazon Prime membership, which I do have. I just get Prime for the free shipping and for the fact that my son and DIL can use it too.

[Drunken Irishman]

13. You'd be surprised. Amazon Prime has 200 million members.

But you also have to put into the context that there are 7.6 billion people in the world.

200 million of 7 billion is like 3% of the earth's population!

[lpbk2713]

5. I'm sure it's just a generalized wake up call.

I get robocalls and emails all the time purporting to be from Amazon, McAfee, Norton, various stores, and various banks I have never had accounts with. Not to mention car warranty people and others who want to combine my credit card debt. I pay them no mind.

[rurallib]

7. Last year I got the same scam from (supposedly)

Costco
Walgreens
Walmart
CVS
Target
Kohls
and more - pretty much any chain of any size. They all offered a $500 gift card. All had the same email url

Started getting the Costco email again two days ago. So I expect to see the others as summer comes.

[Stuart G]

15. YES!!!!! These scams work sometimes......Yes, they work on some people..

IF they didn't work, these scams would not be used...Yes, they work on some people..

[quakerboy]

16. approximately 100 million members

find me any group with 100 million members that are all immune to scams.

[AllaN01Bear]

8. thanks . i just sent this information to our local seinor center.

[left-of-center2012]

9. It's not just Costco. I get these from fake Amazon. PayPal, etc sites.

I only believe ones from Nigerian princes.

[Aussie105]

10. Just your standard scam approach.

Dress your 'offer' up with a name the recipient may be familiar with, Costco, Netflix, Amazon, Bank of America, etc, and entice them with a 'fantastic' offer, something that appeals to their sense of entitlement and greed.

Make the offer look legit, just borrow page layout and graphics from a legit source.
Now spray the Internet with those lovely emails!

Just pay up front, credit card will do, and surely the benefits will flow!
(Yes they do - for the scammers, not you.)

Seriously, people fall for that?
Rhetorical question, some must do, otherwise scammers would not bother.

Standard scam. Nothing to see here.

[erronis]

11. So how can internet police itself? Is this something the browser manufacturers should do?

Stuff comes in daily from emails or hijacked web sites. The emails and pages can be so expertly faked (as in the CostCo warning) that it is easy to miss the target URL not looking legit.

And who of us (esteemed 'netters) can easily identify a target address that is potentially invalid?

I know spammers and evil-doers will substitute letters, add a special TLD.

Browser manufacturers could at least flag the page with a warning. But we also allow a pretty open model of add-ons and cross-domain links.

I dunno. I started with gopher and lynx and usenet and trust. I'm now distrustful of almost everything. (Except DU)

[Sibelius Fan]

12. If people would simply check the sender's email address, they

would see that the mail is not from Costco or whoever.

[keithbvadu2]

14. I get a lot of surveys that say '$50 reward' from various companies/orgs.

I get a lot of surveys that say '$50 reward' from various companies/orgs.

As if the Post Office is going to send cash.

[Stuart G]

17. IF SCAMS DIDN'T WORK, THE CROOKS WOULD GO ON TO SOMETHING ELSE!

.....This is meant to be a ..."Reminder" to tell everyone about these scams...