Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Victoria's Secret Gift Card Scam Has Users Seeing Red Instead of Pink

VS logo

Ladies, ladies, ladies...

On one hand I cannot blame you for being interested in a free $500 Victoria’s Secret gift card.

Seeing how much they charge for a tube of lip gloss – let alone their undergarments – a girl would have to be downright insane to pass up the opportunity to shop there for free, right?

With that being said, though, it’s even crazier to think that VS would give away $500 gift cards to all 750 million Facebook users like this new survey scam says.  That’s over $375 billion dollars tossed right out the window.

Still, the scammers are hoping that math isn’t the first thing your brain wants to do the moment you see the following message pop up in your Facebook News feed or via Facebook event invitation:

Victoria's Secret Scam Spam Message
FREE $500.00 Victoria's Secret GiftCard!! (limited time only)
s3.amazonaws.com

Victoria's Secret is currently giving away gift cards to all facebook users!!

Once you click the link, you’re taken to a page that asks you to post the offer to your profile (so all of your girlfriends can fall for the scam too) and then move your mouse right on over to the “irresistible” ‘Click HERE’ link.

Victoria's Secret Gift Card


At that point you will be kicked over to a completely different website (victoriassecret.thegiftcarddeal.com) that asks you for your email address… at first.

Once they get a taste of your personal information, they’ll want EVERYTHING – your name, physical address, phone numbers - even your date of birth!

They claim that they need all of this information so they’ll know where to send your $500 Victoria’s Secret gift card, but is that really the case?

Not really.

Victoria's Secret Gift Card ScamThe page footer states that in order to receive your $500 Victoria’s Secret gift card, you must meet their eligibility requirements (whatever the heck that means), fill out surveys and complete 10 “reward offers”.

Those reward offers typically involve paid subscription services, loans and credit card offers. All of those things will cost you money too, because the terms also state you can't cancel anything within 30 days of signup and usually you'll have to have some type of activity on your new loan or credit card. So much for your VS card being free.

If you want a Victoria’s Secret gift card, you’re better off asking someone to buy one for you or shopping at VS stores when they’re running the Secret Rewards Card program – which they just ran this past holiday shopping season.

Don’t get sucked into any “freebie” offers advertised on Facebook. Cybercriminals promote these types of scams because they get paid commission for completed surveys. I’m sure they also wouldn’t mind using the information you provide in order to commit identity fraud.

If you see the $500 Victoria’s Secret gift card scam..



  • Don’t click on the links, complete surveys or provide any personal information.

  • If you’ve fallen for the scam already, remove the related Wall posts and expect an increase in spam and similar scams that may be sent via email, text, snail mail or even by telephone.  Also be sure to monitor your mobile phone bill as scammers have been known to sign their victims up for costly SMS subscription services.


Warn your family and friends not to fall for this scam and be sure to avoid other similar scams that are bound to pop-up sooner or later.

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