Warning over 'too good to be true' Pak'nSave scam

Supermarket operator Foodstuffs is warning against clicking on a Facebook promotion offering free food.

An advert on the social media site - at first glance appearing to be from Pak'nSave - claims the New Zealand-owned chain is giving away $500 gift vouchers to celebrate 33 years in business.

"We are Happy to say that we have complete 33 years!!" the badly-written sponsored post read, according to a screenshot posted to social media site Reddit.

The scam post in full. Photo credit: Facebook/Reddit/JitidalNomad

"On this Occasion We Are Giving Away Pak'Save' Free Gift Voucher To Our Daily Visitors .Enter here to register your name." 

A link on the post takes anyone who falls for the scam to a site called awesomevouchers.com, with instructions on "order some free food online". It has instructions on how to allegedly get store credit by referring friends and asking for refunds. The page the post links to is written in stilted English and uses Indian rupees as an example currency, but the site also has pages written in other languages such as Portuguese and Swedish.

The site's ownership is secret, but it appears to be based in India.

The Facebook page was set up in May this year, and uses the same avatar and banner image as the real Pak'nSave, but of course doesn't have the blue tick verifying its identity. It also has zero followers, unlike the real Pak'nSave, which has more than 300,000. 

Foodstuffs told Newshub no one should click on the link. 

"From time to time, we do ask customers to help us with research insights in exchange for gift cards or similar rewards," said head of external relations Antoinette Laird. "If customers are ever unsure if competitions are legitimate, we advise them to please contact us."

She said Foodstuffs would work "quickly as possible" to have the imposter page taken down, and customers shouldn't "click on anything that doesn't feel genuine".

"Don't be fooled - if it looks too good to be true, it probably is."

Strangely enough, Pak'nSave isn't mentioned on the awesomevouchers.com site at all.

According to Facebook, the fake Pak'nSave page is not running any ads at present. 

Newshub.

 

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