Attention target shoppers! If you get a text message saying you may have won $1,000 gift card from Target, you should think twice about responding.
The text messages direct you to claim your free Target or Best Buy gift card.
"Beware," said Kase Chong of Scambook.com, a consumer complaint website. "We think they had it all set up to capture Black Friday. It’s not over yet."
Chong said hundreds of thousands of bogus texts have been sent out.
The Target text can be misleading because it sends you to a website called TargetContests.com which looks like Target and uses the Target logo.
"That’s why Target is so angry," said Chong , who is working with the retailer to warn the public.
Once on the website, you are asked to enter your email, name, address and birth date – all of which Scambook says could make you vulnerable to identity theft.
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"If all they get is a name and birthday, they can sell that," Chong said.
We tried call the phone number that sent the text but it was disconnected. We looked for a phone number or contact for the website running the contests, but couldn’t find one.
Chong said Scambook has also been unable to pin down the source of the promotions website.
Scambook said these text messages are expected to increase during the holidays, so their best advice is: Hit delete.
