The week of the phony Trade Me survey

The scammers have been at it again with a new take on an old story.

Phishing emails traditionally lure in the unsuspecting, pretending to be a trusted brand (your bank, the IRD, Trade Me, etc.)

A recent emailed addition to this is addressing our members by name, and has come in a few variations:

And even more recently, this rather nice one celebrating a Trade Me birthday we weren’t even aware of:

Realistically, who doesn’t want a free gift?

We’ve had trusting Trade Me members click on these links, and go straight to a faked ‘survey’ website, where they are asked to answer six basic questions, before being directed to their prizes.

Here‘s the kicker: as part of their prize, our members are then asked to enter their credit card details for things like trial magazine subscriptions, perfumes, or a $1 LG smart phone.

The trend seems to be that our members are then charged substantially more than they bargained for, and their credit card details are now in the hands of some unscrupulous third party.

Please do NOT click on the links contained in the email. They may look like Trade Me, but they are not our URLs. Simply delete the email and commend yourself for being cyber safe.

We are working to have this site removed as soon as we can.

Action points:

If you have provided your credit card details via the fake site you MUST CALL YOUR BANK RIGHT NOW. Explain the situation and they will cancel the card immediately.

If you believe you entered your Trade Me log in details into a phishing website, you will need to reset your Trade Me password immediately via your My Trade Me page.
As a security precaution, we recommend you run a full virus scan on your computer immediately. In case you don't already have security software to assist with this, you might like to check out this free tool.
If you use the same password elsewhere, it’s possible that your other online accounts may also be accessed. We strongly urge you secure these accounts by updating your password and any security questions as soon as possible (but call your bank first!).
If you'd like to know more about phishing, read our guide on how to protect yourself online from scams.