Outline:
Circulating Facebook post claims that Starbucks is giving away free lifetime passes as part of its 44th anniversary. It urges you to click to claim your lifetime pass.
Brief Analysis:
The post is fraudulent and is in no way associated with Starbucks. Participants have zero chance of getting a free lifetime pass. The post is designed to trick you into submitting your personal details on untrustworthy ‘prize offer’ websites.
Detailed Analysis:
According to a post that is currently being shared on Facebook, you can click to get hold of a free Lifetime Pass to coffeehouse chain Starbucks. The post claims that the company is giving away the lifetime passes as part of its 44th anniversary celebrations. It features an image depicting a Starbucks card. The post also includes the number of the passes that are supposedly left to give away.
However, the post is not from Starbucks and has no connection to the company. And, nobody who participates in the supposed giveaway will receive so much as a free Frappuccino, let alone a Lifetime Pass. Instead, the post is yet another Facebook giveaway scam designed to trick you into divulging your personal details on decidedly dodgy ‘prize offer’ websites.
If you click to claim your pass, you will be taken to a fraudulent website that features the Starbucks logo and begins by asking you to fill in a brief survey about Starbucks products. After completing the survey, the page goes through a fake routine in which it supposedly sends your answers to the Starbucks website and then analyses them before congratulating you on winning one of the passes. Of course, no matter what answers you provide, the results will be the same.
Next, you are asked to share the webpage on Facebook and then send a direct link to the webpage to 15 of your Facebook friends. After spamming your friends with copies of the fake prize post, you will then be able to click a button to get your pass.
Except, of course, that you still won’t get to claim the (non-existent) lifetime pass. Instead, you will be presented with a list of links and informed that you must participate in one or more surveys as a means of verifying your entry.
The links open various third-party websites that offer the chance to win further prizes in exchange for filling in surveys and providing your name, home address, email address, and phone numbers. But, fine print on the sites will state that, by participating, you are giving permission for your personal details to be shared with site sponsors and marketing companies. Thus, you will soon begin receiving phone calls, emails, text messages, and surface letters peddling a range of products and services.
In some cases, the survey site may simply ask for your mobile phone number. But, this time, the fine print will explain that, by entering your number, you are in fact subscribing to an expensive SMS ‘club’ that will charge several dollars for each and every inane and pointless text they send you.
Meanwhile, the scammers who created the fake Starbucks giveaway will earn money each time somebody provides information on one of the survey sites. And, to reiterate, no amount of survey filling will ever get you the promised lifetime pass.
Very similar scams have promised lifetime passes from a range of other popular eateries. If one of these scam posts comes your way, don’t be tempted to participate. Remember that it is only the scammers who win out of these bogus Facebook giveaways.
Last updated: July 15, 2016
First published: July 15, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
What is a Facebook Survey Scam?
Survey Scam List
No, (Insert Name Of Fast Food Outlet) Is NOT Giving Away Lifetime Passes For Free Food
Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/starbucks-free-lifetime-pass-facebook-scam/