In February 2022, we reviewed a scam email that appeared to come from Venmo or a third-party company that promised a $1,000 Venmo gift card. "We are pleased to announce you've been selected," the message said.
This was not a legitimate offer and the message did not come from Venmo. It appeared to have been sent by either a third-party survey company or a scammer posing as the survey company.
The email we looked at used bell emojis in the subject line and said, "Get a $1000 Venmo Gift Card Today." The message read as follows:
? Get a $1000 Venmo Gift Card Today? ? ?
From: Venmo.NLNQRJU.LPGAHKZ@rheerrgi.org via pladias.club
Venmo Gift Card
Congratulations! A $1000 Venmo
gift card is waiting for you...
Upon completion of purchase and/or subscription.We are pleased to announce
you've been selected.Start Right Away
Venmo is not affiliated with, does not sponsor,
or otherwise endorse this promotion.To unsubscribe, please visit here or write to:
Consumer Digital Survey
P.O. Box 4668 #85919
New York, NY 10163-4668
We were unable to find any details on rheerrgi.org, which was part of the email address, but we did find that pladias.club was registered in the previous month. Either way, neither of these two website addresses appeared trustworthy and were not actually giving away a $1,000 Venmo gift card for taking a survey.
Legitimate emails from Venmo end with "@venmo.com," not "rheerrgi.org." For example, emails from venmo@venmo.com and venmo@email.venmo.com can be trusted. (Looking at the "from" address in an email will usually be able to help readers figure out if an email is a legitimate message from the company it says it's from, or if it's from a possible scammer.)
It's unclear what the scam email's intent was, as the scammers apparently forgot to include any links in the message. However, these kinds of scams can potentially lead to phishing attempts and other dangerous outcomes. Caution is advised and it's best to hit delete.
Venmo's real website published a page on various scams they had seen before.
In sum, no, the offer for the $1,000 Venmo gift card was not real.
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