Don't Fall For This Cadbury Scam This Easter Season

Fans of Cadbury chocolate and Cadbury creme eggs would be the first to say the candies are an essential part of any Easter basket. However, if you're on WhatsApp and you find a message encouraging you to click on a link to get a free chocolate basket from the famed chocolate company, you might want to give that "contest" a hard pass, because it appears to be part of a seasonal phishing scam. The message incorporates the image of a purple Cadbury egg with a message saying "5,000 free gifts for you", and if you click through, you could end up on a site that might look authentic, inviting you to fill out a form and answer questions for a chance to get a basket, per Express. 

The chocolate maker has taken to Twitter to warn followers about the con and stated, "We've been made aware of circulating posts on social media claiming to offer consumers a free Easter Chocolate basket. We can confirm this hasn't been generated by us & we urge consumers not to interact. Your security is our priority & we're currently working to resolve this." Unfortunately, the warning may have come too late for some, like the Twitter user who replied, "Sadly saw this too late. Sent and received lots of messages. Passwords changed, just in case."

The scam is not new — in 2020, scammers launched another phishing exercise involving another free chocolate hamper, by encouraging people to fill in a survey. Unfortunately, the exercise left some of the most trusting with hundreds of dollars in fees for premium-rate text messages they inadvertently signed up for. The Sun, which reported on the racket, spoke to cybersecurity expert Richard Merrygold who advised those who might have fallen for cons like this to not be too hard on themselves. "They are clever scams, which take in many people, and if it didn't work they wouldn't do it," he said.

While Cadbury may not be giving away a free chocolate hamper, they are running a "Worldwide Hide" campaign, which encourages members to hide a virtual Easter egg anywhere around the world and send a clue to someone who can search for the egg on the virtual map and receive a candy egg in real life just in time for the holiday. Sounds like a great way to share some popular Easter candy.