Safeway Offers $55 Coupon for 100th Anniversary-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Safeway is offering a $55 coupon on purchases of $60 or more to celebrate the retailer’s 100th anniversary.
The Truth:
This $55 Safeway coupon is a scam.
The coupon went viral on Facebook in early July 2016. In order to redeem the coupon, customers were directed to an outside, third-party website that asked them to like and share the post on Facebook in order to redeem the $55 coupon.
Like most offers that sound too good to be true, however, this one is a scam. Safeway issued a statement on its Facebook page when asked about $55 coupon:
Unfortunately, this coupon is fraudulent. Our team is aware that this has been posted, and is working very diligently on getting it removed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
These types of scams are typically used to get their victims to provide their personal information, which can then be sold to third-parties are used to enroll them in expensive prescriptions without their consent.
Or, these types of scams can also be used for “like farming,” a scam in which a fake offer for products or services is used to entice people to “like” a page so that it can be sold to third-parties for a profit because of its increased visibility.
We’ve investigated many fake coupons for companies like Home Depot, Lowes and Aldi, just to name a few.
To prevent falling victim to scams like these, make sure that any offers you redeem come directly from a company’s official website or social media account. Also, keep in mind that reputable companies will never ask for personal information via social media.