Huawei offering New Year gifts likely to turn into mega scam

LAHORE: A hoax which could be turned into mega scam of personal information stealing is circulating with the title of Chinese leading mobile phone and telecom technologies company on social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook, emails and others.

A link to an unknown website is being received by the users titling that ‘Huawei New Year Gift’ and states Huawei provides free New Year gifts. The web link is also using the logo of the company to deceive the users easily as majority of the consumers are unaware of such a scam. These scams mainly resulted in stealing of the individual personal information and data including phonebooks, messages, videos and pictures, and sometimes passwords of various applications including financial accounts of banks and others in the use of individuals.

When on click of the circulating link, it leads to the users to an unknown website which is displaying ‘New Year Gift’ and stated ‘more than 100 units of computer and mobile equipment, as well as 50 cash prizes ranging from $50 to $5000. All you have to do is open the correct gift box. You have three tries, good luck’! Then it asks three questions, starting with ‘do you know Huawei? Which social software do you use more often? and which Huawei product do you want to buy as a New Year gift? After clicking three questions, it states that you are qualified for the gift and give three boxes to open and every time two boxes open empty and third one opens with a gift. Further, it asks to share the promotion with five groups/20 friends on WhatsApp, Line or Facebook. Interestingly, it gives you 600 seconds validity to avail the chance and when one click on “continue” to receive New Year gifts, it starts stealing individual personal information and data.

An official of the Huawei said there was nothing from the company regarding sharing of free gifts. The hoax is globally circulated from unknown website and the company has nothing to do with it. Further, such scams use many world known companies logos to deceive the users. Huawei did not run any of such promotion or have any relation to currently circulating hoax. The company cautioned the public to be vigilant and take reasonable precaution when encountering such websites as participating in it may result in data, identity theft or other frauds.