Caution! A drawing on a social network: a prize or a hoax?

Today started very fun, exciting. I won $3,060 in a drawing on the social network instagram.

A warning came to me on my Instagram page, which says: "You mentioned this in the comments."I think I'll see who wins. I click "to find out what this prize is, go to our profile". We're getting closer. "Uva 2020 Contest "" to receive a prize, click on the link."This redirected me to the "go get a gift" page. A window with an offer to participate in the drawing will appear in the center of the gift box.

Prize drawing

You only need to open the correct field in three attempts. If it turns out to be correct, then you will have a computer or a mobile device, or a cash prize of up to 5,000 thousand dollars. I click ok.

The page shows boxes with beautiful bows. At the top of the page there is a heading "prize draw from the social network Instagram", and at the bottom of the page there is a user chat where you can read the history of correspondence of people who have made a big profit from these boxes.

It all looks harmless. You can choose from three boxes and, if you are lucky, get a valuable prize. The last of the three attempts was successful, and a gift card with a bow and a nominal value of $ 3,060 got out of the last box.

I click ok.

Collect profits

The next page is a chat with an operator named Anastasia. Connection is in progress. Anastasia prints a message demanding your consent to the payout of the winnings. Click the "add your consent to win" button. Next, click "go to the filling details". Here you need to enter an electronic wallet or bank card.

The essence of deception

When we add the details, we see "the receiving bank refused the operation". To solve the problem of converting money from dollars to lari, you need to pay money. The conversion cost will be 16 lari. It is he who has to pay someone money from my personal bank card. Moreover, they offer payment via a one-day payment system, the trail of which leads to a server that scammers like to use. There are no user agreements, licenses or other documents on this page of the one-day payment system. There are only convenient forms for entering bank card data.

What happens if you pay the required amount?

Then you will be informed that you will still have to pay under the pretext of a commission. The commission is always debited by the sender, and the recipient should never pay the commission himself, especially before receiving the money. Even after the second money transfer, we are faced with a new fictional problem. Now the scammers have come up with non-existent accompanying documentation, which must necessarily accompany your won money. I can pay, then the accompanying documentation will magically form, and the problem will be solved. But the moment of a new problem will come quickly. Now there is a mythical balance to which I have to transfer my money. Only then will this balance be verified. And this is far from the last stage when they demand money from me.

"Free cheese, just a mousetrap."

Regardless of which cards fall out of the boxes with bows, the winners of this lottery will remain scammers who created a non-existent prize draw from a social network.

If you got to the site where the main draw is held, while you deliberately did not go there, and registration and authorization on the site are not required at all, then there is a high probability that you have fallen into a scam.

In the situation under consideration, it turned out like this. The site was presented as a page with a raffle of gifts from the Instagram network. In fact, all this is a fraudulent fake, and the chat reviews come out using a script, Anastasia is not an online operator, everything is programmed so that the first two attempts will be unsuccessful, and on the third you will definitely win a cash prize. Scammers demand to pay money in small amounts, over and over again, justifying various non-existent problems.

Other types of fraud

In addition, you can receive a notification that you have become the winner of the contest. Now many people participate in prize draws for repost. This is the method chosen by scammers to make money from customers.

The bottom line is that the official representative of the contest allegedly offers to receive a prize, but for this you need to transfer a certain amount of money. At the same time, various excuses are voiced for this, for example:

"Confirm that you are not a fraudster yourself";

"A delivery fee is required";

"You have to pay tax for winning the lottery";

"This is a mandatory payment for all participants.”

The imagination of the deceived has no boundaries, so when you are asked to pay any amount, transfer money to an account or dictate a code from the back of a bank card – remember that this is a joke. No one takes a penny from the participants of the prize draw.

Well, I hope for less easy money, many people play the lottery, but not many win.

Be vigilant and warn your friends.