In May and June 2024, a Facebook page called Mystery Prize promoted an Owala scam website. The scam claimed, "Owala is looking for testers to try out their latest water bottle design. They are handing out 5000 water bottles (1 per household). Answer 4 questions to get yours today." This post was a hidden subscription scam. Owala had nothing to do with it.
I discovered the Owala scam trending on Google Trends. Scammers posed as the company, claiming they were giving away items. They hoped people would believe it and click on a link that led to a website with survey questions. No one collected the survey information because it was fake. After the survey, the website claimed the user qualified and just needed to fill out some information and pay for shipping and handling. The user then clicked a link to the final website where they filled out that information.
On the final page of the Owala scam, users filled out their details in a form. The scammers hoped users wouldn't scroll down to read the terms and conditions. Buried in those terms was the catch: scammers would charge users hundreds of dollars per month for a subscription fee for something worthless. It was just a way to take people's money under the guise of "we have terms and conditions, so it's all legal, trust us."
The Facebook page associated with the Owala scam showed most of the users managing the page resided in countries outside the U.S., including Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines. At least two Facebook users supposedly residing in the U.S. also managed the page.
The lesson of the Owala scam is clear: If an online offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Don't trust such offers.
In summary, the Owala scam website, promoted through Facebook ads, pretended to be an official Owala website and tried to get you to hand over your credit card information so the scammers could charge you subscription fees buried in the terms and conditions.
27 сен 2024
