Scam Involving Survey and Bonus Hits McDonalds

Sophisticated tactics of scamming hit McDonalds, compelling the fast-food giant to wholly reconstruct its website being used in New Zealand, as it incessantly attempts to hold back fraudulent e-mails to safeguard its trade name, reports Stuff.co.nz on May 29, 2009.

Recently during March-May 2009, attackers targeted McDonalds' NZ site at least three times with a scam involving fraudulent e-mails that were disguised as an online survey for customer satisfaction, offering users $50 in exchange for certain personal information.

Likewise states the current bogus e-mail too that McDonalds would reward the recipient with bonus if he furnishes information for a very simple and short "Customer Satisfaction Survey." It then says that to participate, the user must follow a given link.

Accordingly, if the user does as directed he is promptly led onto a website that asks seven questions about McDonalds' food items as also its service. But, this website is actually phony, which displays a fake copy of McDonalds' logo to appear more legitimate. Also, at the end of the survey, it provides the user another link to be clicked for claiming the so-called bonus.

When this link is clicked yet another web page appears which prompts the user to enter his full name as well as credit card particulars, apparently for the direct deposit of the bonus into his account. Clearly, when the particulars are submitted, the cyber-criminals behind the scam quickly collect them and use them for fraudulent purposes.

However, McDonalds substantiates that it has not sent the e-mail and that the related customer satisfaction survey and the proposed bonus are all false. Evidently, the survey is a malicious strategy to dupe people into giving away the details of their payment card to online thieves.

States McDonalds that when the company tried to warn customers of the fraud on its NZ site, the scammers, understandably, infiltrated it leading to its forced crash-down.

Meanwhile McDonalds, after the hack, undertook extra security measures for the site, although, the company feels that these extra measures might not block scams in future. But they would certainly strengthen the site's security, the company said.

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