But it’s a post on Sunday which urged followers to share the page to friends for the chance to win a year’s worth of free groceries which has prompted the urgent warning. Especially given that the post attracted almost 1,000 shares and thousands in comments and likes.
'Woolworths Fans page is a scam so please stop liking and sharing guys, you will NOT win a year's worth of groceries,’ one woman warned on social media.
‘I got this info from the OFFICIAL Woolworths page that they are in no way affiliated with this page.’
Said another: ‘Commonsense would have you look at the page first, and if it has no website, address, or other details, and is a well known business, listed as a community, it is fairly obvious it is not a valid page.’
Another warned that sharing the post to friends was ‘compromising your friends security.’
A Woolworths spokesperson has confirmed to New Idea Food that they are worked to have the page taken down, warning customers of ‘phishing scams.’
‘We can confirm that this is not an authorised Woolworths Facebook page and is not affiliated with us in any way,’ the spokesperson said.
‘We have contacted Facebook to ask for the page to be taken down promptly.
‘We encourage our customers to be vigilant of online phishing scams, which seek to imitate well-known brands to collect personal information.
‘We will never ask our customers for their personal or banking details in unsolicited communications.
‘We report scams to the ACCC's SCAM Watch and regularly update our Scam Alerts page on our website to help keep customers secure online.’
Phishing scams work by sending emails and messages - or Facebook posts - that look genuine, often featuring logos and branding affiliated with the company in question. The communications can lead to people being tricked into handing over personal information and credit card details, which means the scammers can carry out their fraudulent activities.
Says Woolworths: ‘They are often specially designed to look genuine, and often copy features from legitimate communications such as our logo and branding.’
For more on Woolworths’ fight against scams, head here.
