Sorry, You Didn’t Win A Samsung QLED TV – Scam Alert!

Were you randomly chosen to win a brand-new Samsung QLED TV? Me too!

It’s great when everyone wins but in this case, there are no winners, only losers. If you received an email claiming that you won a Samsung QLED TV ignore it! It’s fake and designed to trick you into visiting potentially malicious websites including websites containing deceptive surveys designed to phish user-submitted information such as names, home addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and more!

The way the scam works is the scammer will send their targets an email message, usually hundreds to thousands of targets at once, claiming that they have been chosen to receive a brand new Samsung QLED TV. The message may say that in order to claim the reward the recipient must provide their shipping information or complete a survey.

Here’s an example of the message:

Dear Lucky customer,

Congratulations!

We Are Giving The Opportunity To Get One Of Our Limited Rewards For Free (Shipping Not Included). Answer The Questions About Your Experience With Us On The Next Page For Your Chance To Receive The New Brand-New Samsung QLED TV!
Your opinion is very valuable. Click OK to begin.
OK

Kind regards,

The subject of the email may say something like You are the lucky online winner of a brand new Sweepstakes SAMSUNG Qled TV entry! and the sender may be named something similar to SAMSUNG Qled TV.

The purpose of the scam is to primarily dupe unsuspecting victims into completing a loop of infinite surveys. At some point, the survey may as for personally identifiable information for reasons such as shipping and verification. The fraudulent surveys may as for information such as full names, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. It is unknown what is done with this information once it is in the hands of scammers. But, here are some things you may expect to happen:

• You may receive more email spam
• You may receive more calls from marketers and scam artists (IE: Tech Support scams)
• You receive more junk mail at your home address

There are ways to filter email spam, phone calls, and unwanted mail. For example, Gmail has a great default spam filter and a feature where you can report unwanted messages and there are apps that can be downloaded that block calls from known spam numbers or suspicious numbers.

But receiving email spam may be the least of your worries because some websites linked in Samsung QLED email scams may host malware or contain malicious links and advertisements that can install malware on the target’s system. In such a case, it is recommended to immediately download and install a reputable Antivirus or Antimalware program such as Malwarebytes to remove the threat.

1. Download and install Malwarebytes on your computer.
2. Run a scan of your system to identify any malicious software.
3. Remove any malware that is found on your system.
4. Restart your computer and run another scan to ensure that all of the malware has been removed.

Using reputable security software such as Malwarebytes to eradicate threats from your machine is usually more than enough. However, if you feel unsure you may want to consider performing a system restore.

Here are instructions to restore Windows:

1. Press Windows + S to open Windows Search, enter “create a restore point” in the text field, and click Create a restore point in the search results.
2. Click the System Restore button.
3. Select the recommended restore point or manually chose another one on the list and click Next to proceed.
4. If you chose another restore point on the list, you will be shown other restore points, select one, and click Next.
5. Verify the details and click Finish to begin the System Restore process.