"Toyota 80th Anniversary Celebration! Through the questionnaire, you will have a chance to get a Toyota corolla." If you come across this message on any of your social media platforms, beware!
This message which has a link attached is doing the rounds on social media. It urges readers to click on the link and fill up a form that asks for their personal details. The questionnaire page also prominently displays fake comments seeming to be from people across the world. Some of the comments include: "I thought it was a joke but this morning I received a Toyota Corolla and would like to take more surveys!" and "I thought it was a joke, but it arrived this morning!".
The red flags begin as they say right at the very beginning. Toyota was launched on August 28, 1937. Hence, the company had completed its 80th anniversary on August 28, 2017 - not now. The carmaker had tweeted about its celebration back in 2017 too:
It is evident from the link that it is not officially sent by the company. The link 'http://freegifts.758-985.cn' does not contain the company's name or its domain. When The New Indian Express cross-checked the IP address on Geotek Datentechink's IP checker, it revealed that '.cn' is a Chinese-registered domain.
When readers click on the link, it takes them to another page that claims to give away a Toyota Corolla car if they take up the survey. If we take a close look at the page, we can spot many grammatical errors, which is something a well-established company like Toyota would not do.
Also, it is said that in the history of Toyota, it has never given away cars for free. So, if you come across such a message or link, refrain from clicking on it and save yourself from falling prey to online fraud.