By Simon Muli
This website impersonates the Carrefour supermarket chain promising gifts in its name. The link to the website directs to a webpage containing the message entitled “Win Free Gifts from Carrefour”.
The message itself asks users to take part in a customer satisfaction survey by answering a questionnaire to stand a chance of winning a Carrefour gift card worth Sh10,000.
“There are 78 gift cards left,” adds the message.
The questions require the user to provide information on whether they know Carrefour, how old they are, their opinion about the retail chain, and if they would recommend it to their friends.
But after answering the questions, a new message pops up informing the user that the answers have been successfully ‘saved.’ Further instructions require the user to pick the ‘correct’ boxes among those presented. “You have three attempts to make. Good luck!” adds the message.
Selecting a box brings up another message congratulating the user for winning a Ksh 10,000 gift voucher. However, in order to redeem the gift, they must share information about the promotion with either five groups or 20 friends. Thereafter, the instructions require them to key in their email address to complete the registration.
Accepting the terms and conditions opens up yet another message with further instructions to click on the WhatsApp icon on the page to receive the giveaway.
The next step requires the user to click on the “continue” button to get the gift card. This sequence mirrors many phishing scams that are modelled as promotional giveaways with the sole purpose of mining personal information.
Verification
There is no information about the giveaway on the legitimate Carrefour website or its Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The domain name of the website in question is wishurl.xyz, which is not the legitimate domain of the Carrefour website, carrefour.ke.
The WHOIS information of the impostor website reveals it was registered on 21 July 2021, days after the link was shared online. The domain is also registered in the US state of Arizona.
On the other hand, the WHOIS information of the legitimate website of Carrefour shows that it was registered on 30 November 2019 in France and that the domain is owned by the retail chain.
In a Facebook post on 22 July 2021, Carrefour warned members of the public against fraudsters impersonating its website.
“Dear Esteemed Customers, please beware of fraudsters. Please note that Carrefour Kenya only communicates through our official social media channels, e-mail, and website,” reads the post.
Verdict
PesaCheck has looked into the website impersonating supermarket chain Carrefour, and promising gifts in its name and finds it to be a HOAX.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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