Thousands of Singaporeans again fall for "Mini Cooper" Facebook giveaway scam

Another week, another phishing scam, another 8,000 Singaporeans fooled.

Jeanette Tan | October 31, 2016, 03:37 PM

Guys, really?

Last week, we told you about yet another obviously-too-good-to-be-true phishing scam on Facebook involving a Range Rover Sport allegedly up for grabs.

To our dismay, this is happening again, except this time with MINI — a page called "Mini Cooper Singapore" was born on Oct. 29:

Their first Facebook post, dated October 29. Screenshot from Mini Cooper Singapore Facebook page Their first Facebook post, dated October 29. Screenshot from Mini Cooper Singapore Facebook page

Their second post was their cover photo, and their third post?

Screenshot from Mini Cooper Singapore Facebook page Screenshot from Mini Cooper Singapore Facebook page

Just for kicks, we're going to show you the Range Rover Sport giveaway post:

Screenshot from "Range Rover 4WD." Facebook page Screenshot from "Range Rover 4WD." Facebook page

Stock photo with ribbon? Check.

"For the first time..."? Check.

Like, Share, Comment? Check.

In fact, this Mini Cooper scam goes even further -- as it turns out, the URL they point to, urging you to "visit website" as one of the steps, leads to this, courtesy of a kind Facebook user:

Screenshot from Facebook Screenshot from Facebook

The fine print reads:

"$4.28 w/GST per sms, 4 sms/week. 4 sms sent out in 1 day. 10 credits a week. Weekly subscription service MobiPlus Singapore. This is a Mobile Content Subscription service until you quit. Charge applied to mobile phone bill. Only GPRS enabled phone are able to download. Data charges may apply. Only for Android. You will get 10 credits per week: Ringtones cost 3 credits, Wallpapers 2 credits, Games and Apps 5 credits, Videos 4 credits. To stop the subscription send STOP COOL to 146073300. If you do not send STOP COOL to the 146073300 the service will be renewed automatically. Customer service hotline: 63387005 (Operating Hours: 9am-6pm Mon. - Fri.). Powered by Macro Kiosk Pte Ltd"

Wow, wow, wow. There are just so many things wrong with the entire above paragraph (and we're not even talking about grammar) that we feel like fainting. Almost every sentence screams SCAM, guys.

Anyway, once again, we'd just like to highlight that this is the actual MINI Facebook page:

Screenshot from MINI Singapore Facebook page Screenshot from MINI Singapore Facebook page. See the blue tick?

And no, there is no such giveaway happening there or on their site. They've even put up a notice about the scam page:

In fact, this has gotten so ridiculous that others have started spoofing it:

Sorry to disappoint. Now please, if you or your friends have shared this:

1. Delete the post from your page, unlike the original post and delete any comments you left there

2. Unlike the page, and report it as spam

3. Tell any friends you have who shared it that it's a scam and to do the same

And if you entered your phone number into that site, all we can say is — glhf. And quickly call them to unsubscribe from what you unwittingly signed yourself up for before you get charged $4.28 per SMS -.-

 

Here are some other scams you should read about:

Top 10 scams in Singapore that shouldn’t succeed but do

PSA: Here’s another Jetstar scam that won’t let you win free trips

Here’s a real life WhatsApp chat with an alleged scammer showing how smooth he is

‘Bank of China’ tries to SMS scam Singapore man, gets mercilessly trolled instead

S’pore woman trolls phone scammers pretending to be police, uses their tactics on them

Thousands of men and women in Singapore are getting swindled by online scammers

PSA: Beware of the Ray-Ban Facebook scam

 

Top photo: Screenshot from "Mini Cooper Singapore" Facebook page

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