See a contest or giveaway online? Make sure it’s not a scam

Following a rise in complaints, Canada's Competition Bureau warns of criminals creating fake contests to get your personal information. Pat Foran reports.

Some of you may have received emails, calls, or texts saying you’ve won a prize or that you have the chance to enter a contest or lottery.

To win, the message may tell you to enter your name, address and maybe even your phone number and credit card. However, there is no prize, and it’s a scam to try to get your money.

Following a rise in complaints, Canada’s Competition Bureau issued a warning to be cautious of contests and prize giveaways that may be trying to harvest your personal data.

“Deceptive promotional contests can seriously harm consumers by giving them false expectations or hiding important terms and conditions,” said Josephine Palumbo, the Competition Bureau’s deputy commissioner.

These deceptive contests have increasingly been showing up on social media platforms. It may be a pet photo competition, a chance to win a car or for no reason, you’ve been selected a prize winner.

Some red flags for fake contests include there are no terms and conditions; it involves liking, sharing and tagging friends; and you’re asked to pay a fee to claim your prize and provide financial information.

“If they are asking you to hand over personal information, you should take five and really think about it,” Palumbo said.

Fake contests can be used by criminals for identity harvesting. They may get your birthday and hometown off one website, and your job and address off another. Once they piece together enough information, it can make you a target.

According to cybersecurity experts, if you take part in one contest, you could be bombarded by others.

“It’s a very intelligent way of running a fraudulent campaign. The scale of which we are seeing this is alarming,” said Steve Giguere, the principal AI security advocate for Check Point Software.

Once criminals have your information, your personal data could be stolen, leading to identity theft, phishing attacks, financial losses and wasted time.

If you really want to enter a contest, make sure it’s legitimate.

“Always do third-party identification of where something says they are coming from. If there are links that say ‘click here,’ we know that’s a classic phishing campaign; don’t click it check the source to make sure this is real,” Giguere said.

The Competition Bureau also told CTV News legal contests must state the number and value of prizes, how winners are selected and easy access to contest rules.

Lotteries in Ontario that are regulated by the government have strict rules and oversight. But if you enter a lottery on social media, it’s like the wild west, if you have no idea if it’s real or fake, it’s best to ignore them.