Greg's Corner

Vaccine survey could be a scam!

By Greg Collier

People all over the country have been reporting that they’ve been receiving emails and text messages asking them to fill out a survey about the COVID-19 vaccine. The messages even appear to look like they’ve been sent by one of the major manufacturers of the vaccine. So far, close to 50 million people in America have been fully vaccinated. This gives scammers a pretty large target. The messages are almost certainly sent out at random, but the odds are pretty good they’ll reach someone who has been vaccinated.

The majority of these survey scams promise the recipient a free gift if they fill out the survey. Of course, the free gift comes with a catch. While the gift may be free, the survey takers are asked for their credit or debit card information to pay for shipping. The gift doesn’t actually exist, and the scammers are just out to get as many card number as they can. Officials have also warned people to not click on any links contained in the messages as they could potentially lead to your device being infected with malware.

The surveys themselves are even said to be asking for sensitive information that could be used for identity theft. It seems like the survey scammers don’t want to leave any digital stone unturned when it comes to gathering as much data about you as possible. If you receive one of these messages, it’s recommended that you delete it immediately and not click on any of the links they contain. If you’ve already lost money to this scam, you’re asked to report it to the FTC.