On Facebook, many posts promise bicycles, supposedly free, to netizens. It is a bait to obtain your personal data.
While cycling has become increasingly popular since the lockdowns, it is with bikes that criminals are now trying to lure internet users. For several weeks now, many posts on the social network Facebook have called on users to “like” content to receive a free bike.
One million reactions from Internet users
A page called “Decathlon fans”, usurping the identity of the sports brand, ensures that a huge stock of bicycles will be offered. These are bicycles in perfect working order, but “they cannot be sold due to small scratches”. Followed by almost 60,000 Internet users, this page was a great success with this advertisement published on September 15, which was very well liked and broadcast. An earlier post, now deleted, had generated more than a million reactions according to BFM-TV.
To get these famous bikes for free, the page called on Internet users to indicate their favorite color in the comments. Of course, it was all too good to be true. Because in order to finalize his “win”, he had to fill out an online form.
Personal data collected
Internet users were encouraged to fill in their contact details, email, phone number and address, and then to answer surveys about their spending habits. Enough to allow criminals to create a nice personal database, which can then be resold or used to steal bank details.
Therefore, the Belgian subsidiary of Decathlon has warned against this scam. “Therefore, we recommend that you do not react to these messages and that you do not ‘like’ these pages. This could expose you to a phishing attempt. We have reported the malicious pages to the corresponding social networks,” he writes in his facebook page.
The “Decathlon Fans” page has now removed all their posts. But he probably saved the personal data of Internet users he tempted with bikes.
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