{"id":17745,"date":"2025-01-28T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T10:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyberinsights.iainfraser.net\/?p=17745"},"modified":"2026-06-11T15:24:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:24:33","slug":"when-free-becomes-costly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/01\/28\/when-free-becomes-costly\/","title":{"rendered":"CYBER AWARE: FAKEAWAYS – When free becomes costly\u2014What is a fake giveaway?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Helping Keep Small Business CYBERSafe!
\n<\/strong>Gibraltar: Tuesday 28 January 2025 at 11:00 CET<\/p>\n

CYBER AWARE: FAKEAWAYS – When free becomes costly\u2014What is a fake giveaway?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>
\nBy: Iain Fraser – Cybersecurity Journalist<\/a>
\nCYBERInsights<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0First for SME Cybersecurity News<\/a>
\n#CyberInsights #CyberSecurity #CyberAwareness #CyberSafe #SME #SmallBusiness
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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When free becomes costly\u2014What is a fake giveaway?<\/strong>
\nA fake giveaway is a scam disguised as a contest or prize promotion. The goal? To trick you into giving away your personal data, money, or both. While some fake giveaways are just a nuisance, others can have serious consequences. Fake giveaways are one of the many traps scammers use to steal your personal data, money, or even gain access to your accounts.<\/p>\n

Of course knowing how to spot “fakeaways” can save you from a major headache\u2014and possibly protect your information and bank account.
\nA recent blog post by Avast<\/strong><\/a> discusses the scam and looks at ways Small Businesses can avoid falling for the “Fakeaway Trap” and outlines the key top 10 red flags and knowing how to spot them:<\/p>\n

The immediate dangers from falling for a “Fakeaway” scam are:<\/p>\n

Identity theft:<\/strong> Your personal data could be stolen and used for fraudulent purposes.
\nFinancial loss:<\/strong> Scammers may ask for \u201cprocessing fees\u201d or payment information.
\nInfected devices: Links in fake giveaways often lead to malware-laden sites.
\nPhishing attacks: Your login credentials could be stolen, locking you out of your accounts.
\nTime wasted:<\/strong> You spend effort on tasks for a reward that will never come.<\/p>\n

Recognizing the red flags can help keep you safe. Here’s how to separate the scams from the real deals:<\/p>\n

1. It\u2019s a real brand, but the account isn\u2019t verified
\n2. The account is brand new
\n3. Spelling and grammar mistakes
\n4. Excessive tasks to enter
\n5. It doesn\u2019t have terms and conditions
\n6. The prize is too good to be true
\n7. The account gets bot-like engagement
\n8. You \u201cwon\u201d but didn\u2019t enter
\n9. They request payment information to claim the prize
\n10. It\u2019s April 1st<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn More \/...<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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SMECYBER Insights \u2013 Helping Keep Small Business CYBERSafe!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Launched in 2020 by\u00a0Cybersecurity Journalist<\/a>\u00a0Iain Fraser<\/strong>\u00a0and his team at\u00a0IfOnly…<\/strong><\/a> SMECYBERInsights<\/strong><\/a> was developed to be the go-to platform providing definitive, reliable & actionable Cybersecurity News, Intel,\u00a0 Awareness & Training specifically written and curated for Small Business<\/strong><\/a> & Enterprise Owners, Partners and Directors throughout the UK.\u00a0#SMECyberInsights #SMECyberSecurity #CyberAttack #CyberAwareness\u00a0 #Compliance #DDoS #Fraud #Ransomware #ScamAlert #SME #SmallBusiness #SmallBusinessOwner #ThreatIntel <\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Image Credit: IfOnlyCommunications Learn More \/… Image Credit: IfOnlyCommunications<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[516],"tags":[517],"ppma_author":[505],"class_list":["post-17745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyberawareness","tag-cyberawareness"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10.png",1080,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10-300x300.png",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10-768x768.png",640,640,true],"large":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10-1024x1024.png",640,640,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10.png",1080,1080,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10.png",1080,1080,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10-1024x1024.png",1024,1024,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/FAKEAWAYS-Top-10-540x340.png",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Cybersecurity Journalist Iain Fraser","author_link":false},"category_info":"SME CYBER AWARENESS<\/a>","tag_info":"SME CYBER AWARENESS","comment_count":"0","authors":[{"term_id":505,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"admin_yjdstq4n","display_name":"Cybersecurity Journalist Iain Fraser","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/index_image440-removebg-preview.png","url2x":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/index_image440-removebg-preview.png"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"http:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk","last_name":"Cybersecurity Journalist","first_name":"Iain Fraser","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17745"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29189,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17745\/revisions\/29189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17745"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=17745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}