Aldi shoppers warned to be aware of new Facebook scam
Aldi has warned shoppers to "be careful" of a new privacy scam circulating on social media.
The fraudulent scheme is being distributed under a fake Aldi Fans Facebook account and is promising customers the chance to score a $750 shopping voucher.
The scam post is being widely circulated on Facebook and has already been shared more than 3600 times in less than 24 hours by unsuspecting shoppers.
“Hey everyone! We have thousands of these selected boxes left over from the Christmas sale, we know times have been a struggle recently and we will be doing something special for everyone who shares+comments before February 5th a bag full of Christmas essentials,” the fake post reads, alongside images of packed Christmas gift bags.
“We have packed every bag full of goodies. We also place a $750 voucher in 100 random bags. We can only ship one per household.”
Shoppers are then being asked to share the post to five groups they are in before being contacted to share their personal details in order to secure a free bag.
"You need to validate your entry by sharing above post to five active groups you're in. Once you finish we will let you know your confirmation within a few hrs," the fake account replies to each person who shows interest.
The post has already had over 2600 comments from customers expressing interest saying it’s a “beautiful idea” and that they’ve already liked and shared the post to enter.
‘Sounds too good to be true’
However, some became suspicious of the account saying it sounds “too good to be true”.
“This was advertised before, never heard from them, so it's a scam!” One person wrote on a shared post of the scam, with another adding: “This is the 6th post I've seen tonight”.
Meanwhile, other weary customers reached out to Aldi directly to check whether the post was fake.
“There has been an ‘Aldi Fans’ giveaway circulated around Facebook. Can you confirm if it’s legitimate? Lots of people are sharing and are giving their details to this link. So if it’s not legitimate, it is compromising privacy details,” one concerned shopper wrote on the Aldi Australia Facebook page.
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Aldi confirms the scam
The German supermarket giant quickly confirmed that the post circulating is a scam.
“We are aware that there is a scam circulating on social media offering an Aldi voucher. Please be aware that this is spam, and not conducted or authorised by Aldi Australia,” an Aldi spokesperson said on Facebook.
“We advise everyone not to interact with these posts. We have reported this issue to Facebook, who are working to resolve this.”
The spokesperson went on to confirm that any official Aldi competitions or giveaways will come directly from the Aldi Australia Facebook account or their official website.
Aldi declined the opportunity to comment further on the scam post when contacted by Yahoo News Australia.
Previous Aldi voucher scams
It appears this isn't the first time an Aldi voucher scam has circulated across social media. A similar scam was spotted by shoppers only a matter of months ago with shoppers being warned by an Aldi spokesperson “not to interact with these posts”.
Angry shoppers said the posts needed to be taken down as many people were “getting sucked in” by the scam.
“Have the scam taken down. Why is it not being taken down if you know about it? Maybe you get some publicity from it? I reported it to Facebook and they did not take it down,” one angry shopper wrote on the Aldi Facebook page warning.
“So many of my friends got sucked in by this and shared it around. Thank you for doing something about it,” added another.
Aldi shoppers have been the target of numerous social media scams over the years, including a free groceries scam back in 2020 and an Aldi job application scam in 2021.
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