PSA: Starbucks Is NOT Giving Out $50 Gift Cards on Facebook

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Anatomy of a Facebook scam: “Like” some product and you’ll get it for free—after handing over some sensitive personal information about yourself. The latest round includes “free” gift cards to Tim Hortons and Starbucks.

The $25 gift cards to Tim Hortons may be somewhat believable, though that’s still a lot of money for a coffee chain to eat for a Facebook promotion. The $50 and $100 Starbucks cards? Come on.

What does Starbucks have to gain by giving you a $50 gift card? Name recognition? Even though the scam purports that the gift cards are being given away to celebrate Starbucks’ 40th anniversary, doling out $50 worth of free stuff to everyone on Facebook would be a bad, bad business decision if the products you sell normally run for around $5 a pop.

The fake page you’re whisked off to—bettercoffeerewards.me (which should be another red light since it has nothing to do with Starbucks—has apparently claimed almost 4,000 suckers already, with instructions to click the “Share” button and leave a comment saying “Thanks!” or “I love Starbucks!”

Hopefully they haven’t all handed out their personal information, too.

[via Sophos]

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