With Easter Sunday fast approaching, like most of us, you probably can’t wait to indulge in some delicious chocolate treats! But don’t fall for this Cadbury-themed scam because you’ll end up passing lots of personal data to scammers, and you won’t see any chocolate for your troubles either!

Cadbury Easter Basket scam

This scam has really been making the rounds on WhatsApp recently. An almost innumerable number of people have reported receiving the WhatsApp message below.

In fact, so many people have received the message that Cadbury UK posted to its Twitter page confirming that the messages are not being sent by Cadbury and urging people not to interact with them.

Interacting with the messages means clicking on the included link. This link is what’s called a phishing link and once clicked on, will take you to a web page designed to steal your personal data. Such phishing scams will commonly ask for your name, email address, physical address, and even banking information.

With this scam, the scammers are obviously hoping people will be so excited to get their hands on an “Easter Chocolate Basket” and their “5.000 free gifts” that they will have no concerns about providing such personal information.

However, those that do enter their personal information on the scammer-controlled website won’t receive any Easter-themed treats, and their data could be used by the scammers to commit any number of crimes, including identity theft.

How to protect yourself

• Double-check the sender’s mobile number/email address.
• Be suspicious of free gifts or prizes.
• Always go to the official website/application instead of using links from unknown sources.
• Use Trend Micro ScamCheck to surf the web safely (it’s free!)

Trend Micro ScamCheck is an all-in-one browser extension and mobile app for detecting scams, phishing attacks, malware, and dangerous links – and it’s FREE!

Check out this page for more information on ScamCheck.

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