Target PS5 scam email leads to credit card form on Vietnam registered website

Claim:

An email message states precisely that Target is giving you a brand new PlayStation 5 gaming console in exchange for answering survey questions.

Evaluation:

In February 2023, we investigated a new scam email from Target PS5 claiming that recipients had won a brand new Sony PlayStation 5 games console. However, this was a scam and a potentially dangerous one at that.

The subject line in the emails read, “You’ve won a PlayStation 5.” The messages came from an email address with the display name “Target PS5.” Target and Sony were not involved in the scam. Their company names and logos have been used without permission.

The Target PS5 scam email showed a pretty professional design.

[See also: Did Walmart Employees Hide a PS5 Stash for Themselves?]

The text of the email misleadingly stated that users would only have to answer a few survey questions to “win a brand new PlayStation 5”.

It only takes a minute to claim this amazing prize. PlayStation 5

Goal. Answer & Win: A brand new PlayStation 5. Get started now.

Congratulations! You have been selected to join our loyalty program for FREE! It only takes a minute to claim this amazing prize.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe by clicking here.

The link in the email led to a 15-question survey on orientgrounds.info, a brand new website that GoDaddy.com said was registered on February 14th.

After these 15 questions, the scam led to win.myluckyprizes.com/ps5/checkout.php. This website, myluckyprizes.com, was also fairly new and was created in January 2023. Records showed that it was registered with a Vietnamese domain registrar.

We had already seen many signs that this Target PS5 email was a scam, and the Vietnamese registration was another red flag that none of it was legitimate.

On myluckyprizes.com, the website asked for the user’s name, mailing address, phone number, and email address. it then asked for a credit card number and claimed the financial information was required to charge $7.95 to enter the PS5 prize.

We did not find any Terms of Use or Privacy Policy pages on myluckyprizes.com. We also haven’t seen a parent company name or other identifying details. Also, attempts to load the myluckyprizes.com home page failed with a “403 Forbidden” error.

If a reader has fallen for this scam and disclosed a credit card number, we encourage them to contact their credit card company immediately to let them know what happened. The credit card company can best advise what to do next. A new credit card number may need to be issued in the mail. The reason for this precaution is that scammers sometimes try to use credit card information days, weeks, or even months after they get their hands on it.