CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A COVID-19 scam is making the rounds again, with an email arriving in inboxes, claiming to be from vaccine-maker Moderna and asking the recipient to take a survey in exchange for a $50 gift card.
THE QUESTION
Is Moderna promising a gift card for people who take a survey about its COVID-19 vaccine?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, any email promising a gift card to people who take a survey about Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is not real. Various federal agencies, including the FTC, are warning people to be wary of promises of money or prizes for information about vaccine experiences.
This scam was first reported in early 2021, with email recipients reporting fake surveys claiming to be from different vaccine-makers, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna.
THE RED FLAGS
The Better Business Bureau warns against clicking links in unsolicited emails, especially without looking at the details of the message. In the latest version of the vaccine survey scam, hovering over or tapping the sender's name shows the sender's email address does not use Moderna's official domain name.
The email also contains two different mailing addresses at the bottom, neither of which track back to Moderna when typed into a search engine. There is also part of another business's name alongside one of the mailing addresses as if someone forgot to remove it after copying and pasting.
Finally, the photo of vaccine vials used to promote this survey shows generic COVID-19 vaccine vials, rather than Moderna-branded vials. The picture also shows a watermark for a news outlet, indicating it was likely ripped from the web.
The BBB warns those suspicious of an email to watch out for poor grammar and spelling and look for any sort of phrasing that heightens the urgency to take an action.
Whether you ended up getting scammed by this email or not, the FTC says you can report the scam to its database, so it can investigate and warn others about it.