SMS Spam Claims You Won $100 Starbucks Gift Card

If you thought there was something phishy about that unsolicited text message claiming that you won a $100 Starbucks gift card, give yourself a pat on the back for being right.

Scammers are spamming out the following text message, hoping caffeine lovers will bite the bait and hand over personal details to redeem their “prize” -

Your recent entry has won. Claim your $100 Starbucks Gift Card here hxxp://buxcrd.com

Following the link will take you to the page seen below on buxcred.com, a domain that's clearly not related to Starbucks:

Clicking “continue” will redirect you to another site, starbucks.freegiftcardworld.com that asks for your email address:

Hopefully you noticed the fine print on this page, because it clearly states that you will have to meet some “eligibility requirements” to claim this $100 Starbucks gift card that you supposedly won. The one requirement that should convince you to stop here is #4, which states:

4) Eligible members can receive the incentive gift package by completing two reward offers from each of the Silver and Gold reward offer page options and nine reward offers from the Platinum reward offer page options and refer 3 friends to do the same. Various types of reward offers are available. Completion of reward offers most often requires a purchase or filing a credit application and being accepted for a financial product such as a credit card or consumer loan.

Hmmm... doesn’t seem like anything was “won” here at all.

If you’re still not convinced, the next page will ask for your personal information – full name, address, date of birth & cellphone number – and a series of random yes/no questions like, ‘Are you interested in going back to school’ and ‘Do you have $10k or more in credit card debt?’ Those seem totally related to the giveaway, right? (/sarcasm)

(Sidenote: Think twice about giving out your mobile cellphone number as scammers have been known to sign victims up for expensive SMS services.)

Filling out this page and clicking ‘Continue’ will take you to Step 3, which offers a new Cell Phone. Folks that cannot resist clicking on that offer will see a popup window with nothing more than an advertisement.

Closing the window will reveal a blank screen, which is also the same result you get if you click the barely noticeable ‘No thanks’ button on step 3.

That’s the end of this rabbit hole.

What to Do If You Receive SMS Spam

If this text message lands in your SMS inbox, it is recommended that you:

• Do not click on the link.


• Do not supply any personal information.


• Report the message by forwarding it 7726 (stands for S-P-A-M). You may get an automated reply asking for the sender number.


• Delete the text message.

Additionally, you can check with your cellphone service provider to see what measures can be taken to stop future SMS spam. Just keep in mind that it’s likely future text message spam will come from a different number.

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