CHARLOTTE, N.C. — You've heard the old saying, "what's old is new again." The same thing goes for scams. Whole Foods has confirmed that a text message going around is a fake.
The message asks you to take part in a shopping research project at Whole Foods. Each task you perform, you will be paid $400. There is an application link embedded in the text — that's the hook and the danger.
If you click on this link, it is likely you could put malware on your phone or some other type of harmful software.
The best thing you can do is a quick google search of the text message. If you do one on this message, you'll see it's been circulating since 2018 and has been the subject of multiple news reports.
"One of the tips to verify if something is real or not, is to hover your mouse over the URL, that will expose the true origin of the email," said Tom Bartholomy of the Charlotte Better Business Bureau.
The WCNC Defenders unit reached out to Whole Foods about this latest text message. A company spokesperson confirmed the text message is a fake and has nothing to do with Whole Foods.
These scams often take on different faces. Companies like Target, Best Buy and Amazon have had their logos and names used in similar deception scams.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, one in ten adults in the United States will fall victim to a scam every year. In 2019, the FTC said fraud losses topped 1.9 billion dollars, a 28% increase from the year before.