Nottinghamshire Police is aware of a link to a scam website using the name ‘Morrisons Super Market’ received through WhatsApp as a forwarded message.
The WhatsApp scam has the following information:
“Morrisons is giving away free groceries worth £250 to support the nation during Corona pandemic. Hurry up! Collect your FREE voucher.”
It’s said to appear genuine and the link to the website provided was: http://morrisons.uk-groceries.store/#
As you can see, the URL starts with just ‘HTTP’ which isn’t secure, always check you have HTTPS within your browser for the most secure way of browsing (this ‘s’ stands for secure). Always check the spelling is correct and look out for numbers used instead of letters and added symbols like the ‘#’ as this is a method used on fake sites to trick you.
The link is said to work as expected and looks like it is genuine. You are then asked to answer three initial questions and are then led to another web page asking to circulate this offer among friends using WhatsApp.
When going to share this message it leads to another page informing you that you can win an iPhone 11. You’re then asked to pay £1 for handling charges and request your bank/credit card details to process the payment.
Cyber Crime Prevent and Protect Officer, Kirsty Jackson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Criminals will use every opportunity they can to defraud innocent people. They will continue to exploit every angle of this national crisis and we want people to be prepared.
“We will be sharing scam advice where possible to try and get one step ahead of these criminals and we want to help the public protect themselves from these scams where possible. However, we will need the help of the public to share this as much as possible, including conversations with those less likely to see our alerts.
“We are not trying to scare people at a time when they are already anxious. We simply want people to be aware of the very simple steps they can take to protect themselves from handing over their money, or personal details, to criminals, please see below for our top tips and you can also refer to our website www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/cybercrime to complete our ‘online safety checklist’.”
5 Top tips to Protect from online scams:
– Pick strong passwords – Use Three Random Words with a mixture of Upper/Lower case, consider adding numbers and special characters.
– Be wary of phishing scams – Don’t click on any unknown links in emails and use two-factor authentication.
Social Media – If you use social media, review the privacy settings to ensure your profile is locked down, so only your friends can view.
– Use antivirus software and make sure that it is kept up to date.
– Backups – Always back up your most important data such as your photos and key documents, back them up to an external hard drive.
5 Top tips to protect from Fraud:
Please report all Fraud and Cybercrime to Action Fraud either online https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ or by calling 0300 123 2040.
