Costco has alerted its customer base of a slew of digital scams that are targeting its customers of the retail organization.
Multitude of email and message scams pretending to be Costco:
Costco is an American multinational wholesale corporation that operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores.
Detailing the internet deployed digital scams, Costco has published a total of 14 screenshots that contain prominent fraudulent emails, messages, and posts.
In these emails or postings, it is found that cybercriminals are duping users by pretending to be Costco representatives.
Most of these scams employ financial benefits to trap victims where they impersonate Costco representatives, all the while promising them free products, exclusive offers, cashback rewards, financial reimbursements, and gift cards worth actual sums of money.
These cybercriminals or fraudsters use these aforementioned methods to trick users into sharing their credit card and other financial details via deploying a short “survey” to the users in the name of claiming a prize.
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In other techniques, the malicious actors are also taking advantage of the current unfortunate conditions of the pandemic.
This is perpetrated by duping telling shoppers that a Covid-19 stimulus package consisting of $130 of free merchandise will be given to “loyal Costco members” who fill in a customer survey.
Another survey-based fraud informs customers that they will receive a free HDTV as a ‘thank you’ for ‘always paying their bills on time’ if they answer queries about their Costco shopping experiences.
Other social engineering tactics deployed by threat actors include the exploitation of Americans seeking employment. One scam email falsely told the recipient that the retailer organization was “currently taking interviews for positions in your area that pay up to $21.00 per hour.”
After sharing their personal details, the victim is told that they would receive confirmation of a job interview with the company.
A fraudulent phishing email flagged by Costco uses a limited-time offer and the promise of an exclusive giveaway to put pressure on victims to take the bait.
Alerting users against such scams:
These scams have been widely deployed and have reportedly appeared in mailboxes, social media, text messages, and email inboxes of Costco customers.
Responding to the slew of scams that are hampering the customer base, the organization has firmly noted that the fraud offers are not a part of Costco or its advertising.
“You should not visit any links provided in messages such as these, and you should not provide the sender any personal information,” noted the retailer.