McDonald’s Warns New Zealand Customers of Fake Customer Feedback Survey

McDonald's customers in Timaru (New Zealand) are being targeted by an e-mail phishing scam, as reported by the Timaru Herald on June 30, 2009.

The phishing e-mail has been randomly sent to e-mail IDs across New Zealand, with an attractive offer of earning $50 from McDonald's by just filling in a customer feedback form and giving credit card and bank account details.

It is said that the phishing e-mail came into light on June 29, 2009 when Gavin Wright, a resident of Timaru discovered the e-mail, but he easily identified that it was a scam.

Wright further said - he easily recognized that it was a phishing scam as the spelling of New Zealand was wrongly written, as reported by The Timaru Herald on June 30, 2009.

Following the identification of the phishing scam, Wright contacted the police and also informed to McDonald's. The fast food chain separated itself from the e-mail scam and suggested to delete it immediately.

Kate Porter, McDonald's New Zealand National Communications Manager, said that the phishing scam had been circulating since March 2009 and had attacked people in five separate waves, as reported by Timaru Herald on June 30, 2009.

Meanwhile, Ms. Porter said that although the scam was very annoying, the company couldn't do anything except reporting it to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. However, she appreciated Mr. Wright for his remarkable step of bringing the scam into the public notice and the fast food chain.

She also added that people had not to think of these things. Being a reputed company, McDonald's didn't seek for the bank and credit card details of customers through e-mail.

In fact, it is a very shameful act that a fast food chain and its customers become targets of phishing e-mails as they are mostly aimed at banks and financial institutions like eBay and PayPal.

Security experts have tried to draw attention towards rising innovativeness and smartness of cyber criminal which enable them to lure unwary users to give away their passwords.

With economic slowdown is still going on, the phishing e-mail scams are generating profits for cyber criminals by attacking netizens in various parts of New Zealand.

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» SPAMfighter News - 7/13/2009