Have McDonald's and Burger King Merged? Of course not.
In my inbox today (not in the SPAM box, either!) this missive. I am not sure whether it is SPAM or a con or not. After all, "MacDonald" often gives away Burger King gift cards! By the way, here's a fast-food tip: Next time you are at MacDonald, check out the "clearance section" as marked-down leftover cheeseburgers are a good bargain!
(From: "MacDonald"):
Hello dear consumer
We are super excited to announce this week’s giveaway.Each week, we give away one of our most popular products.That’s right, this is one of our hottest items, not just something from the clearancesection.Find out this week’s awesome giveaway here:
And this is just the start, we do this EVERY WEEK.We’re going to be announcing the winner in the next couple days, so keep an eye onyour inbox.Best of luck!
UPDATE: I received the same SPAM e-mail again, but this time from "McDonald's" and not "MacDonald" and offering a $100 McDonald's gift card. Apparently scammers are reading my blog! And yes, it is a scam. But sadly, if you use the McDonald's "app" the e-mail looks a lot like the legit messages you will get from the real McDonald's. I suspect more than one person will be taken in.
The scam? Who knows? Maybe just e-mail address harvesting. Or you "sign up" and are told next week that you "won" but they need a credit card number or a payment to mail or "process" the card. Or they just ask for identification data - social security numbers and so forth.
No matter what, it is a scam, and you would be foolish to respond to it.
UPDATE: Sadly, it seems that the real McDonald's app is also a scam. You place an order and get... nothing!
