The iPhone 15 Pro Max Giveaway scam: How to spot and beat scammers

If you are following a popular content creator or brand on social media, chances are that you have seen these personalities upload ‘giveaway’ contests on social media. These giveaways can feature anything from small cash incentives to big, expensive items like flagship gadgets, smartphones, and sometimes, even cars!! But, with every honest creator and brand, we see multiple clones pop up. They too will post similar sounding giveaway posts, triggering a slew of interactions by unaware users, and the end result is that they rob the ‘winner’ of his/her money, and later, ghost them without giving them the promised reward.

In this article, we are going to talk about a well known giveaway scam, and how you can spot scammers and save yourself and your valuable money from these miscreants.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max Giveaway scam

Ok, so this is a scam that I ran into, and it is called the iPhone 15 Pro Max Giveaway scam. Ok, before we get into the scam itself, let me tell you how a giveaway works on social media.

How does a giveaway work?

The account or brand hosting the giveaway will put up an announcement on their respective social media accounts. The post will have an image of the prize that is being given away, and a few steps that followers must take, in order to be eligible for the contest. These steps will look something like this –

1. Follow the account (the account of the creator or brand and other subsidiaries if they are involved)
2. Like the post
3. Share the post on your social account timelines/stories.
4. Comment something in the comment section.

Typically, the point of the giveaway is simple. The gadget being given away is not usually brand new. It could be a review unit that the creator has got from the brand. However, if the brand itself it hosting a giveaway, then this could change. The host of the giveaway stands to gain a lot more as there are millions of interactions on the post while there is only 1 or 2 winners.

Anyways, it’s basically like “you give us reach on social media, and we will give 1 or 2 of you a cool gift”. Once the participation deadline is over, the creator or brand will randomly select a winner, and the same will be contacted by the host, where they will take the shipping details, and the product will be shipped. If the prize is a cash incentive or gift card, then the relevant details will be taken and the gift will be dispatched as per the terms and conditions put forward.

The Scam giveaway

As I said earlier, there are many nefarious elements on social media who just want to rob people of their hard earned money. They way they do this is through scam giveaways. They impersonate the accounts of the creators and brands, and create giveaway posts that look exactly like the one I spoke about above. The language is the same, the terms and conditions are the same, heck, even the response that they send to the winners is the same. For someone who is not very savvy, differentiating between the two giveaways is near impossible.

But, that is where I am going to help you. Here is how you can spot a fake giveaway –

Number 1. Verify the account that is hosting the giveaway

Usually, social media platforms have a way to identify creators and brand accounts. On instagram, it is the verified tick, and on X, brands have a golden tick while blue ticks are for creators. Recently, both the platfoms made it possible for people to buy blue ticks as well, which has made this method a bit tricky to use. But nonetheless, if there is a verified tick in front of the account, you can breathe easy and participate in their giveaway.

 

 

On the other hand, the fake accounts impersonating the creators and brands will have the same profile image, same kind of tweets, and maybe same giveaway posts as well. However, they will not have a verified tick in front of their account name. If the giveaway post you see has a brand or creator account with no verified tick, stay away at all costs.

Number 2. Read the comments in the comments section of the giveaway post before participating

Say the account hosting the giveaway has a blue tick, one more thing you can do to verify the authenticity of the post, is to head to the comments section. Typically, you will see people calling out the scam, and if you spot this, you should stay away from the giveaway now matter how enticing the prize looks.

Number 3. Analyse the account for past giveaways

Usually, creators and brands conduct periodic giveaways, and if it is their first giveaway, they ensure that they include that in the post. What you can do is go through the account of the creator or brand that is hosting the giveaway. If you see past posts of giveaways and photos shared by the winners, then you can go ahead and participate in the giveaway.

If the giveaway is a first for the brand or creator, then you can do one thing – Check all their social media accounts (Instagram, YouTube, X, Facebook), and check if they have uploaded information on the giveaway. Sometimes, the giveaway will be featured on their website as well. If this exists, then you can participate in the contest.

In all of this, at any given point, you get eve a 1% doubt, you should refrain from participating in the giveaway, as it is better to be cyber safe than cyber sorry.

“I have entered a giveaway and have been chosen as the winner…what should I do next?”

Ok, so say you have already entered a giveaway. You may or may not have verified the host account, and this can happen. Sometimes, situations may trigger you to try and get lucky with a contest like this, and in the excitement, you sometimes tend to overlook the obvious details. Now, say, by some stroke of luck, you are chosen as the winner, you will receive a message from the host account saying you are the winner, send across the details etc etc.

Here there are some things you should look out for.

Number 1. If the giveaway you entered is genuine, these are the signs – 

1. The host account will send you a message congratulating you.
2. You will be asked for your details.
3. The product you won will be shipped to you at no extra charge (it is a giveaway, not a purchase).

It is also standard practise for the host to share tracking details of the shipment with the recipient as this will not only reassure the winner, but also help him/her track the package and ensure that they receive it properly.

Number 2. If the giveaway you entered was a scam, these are the signs – 

 

 

1. The host account will send you a message congratulating you. This will look more or less like the message you would receive on a genuine giveaway. At this point you will get excited and message the account expressing your joy, and you will start receiving some very blank replies.
2. You will be asked to share your details with the account.
3. Now, once you share the details, the account will send you a screenshot of a supposed shipping page where you will be told to confirm your details. At this point, you are absolutely hooked and can’t wait for the gift to get shipped.
4. Once you confirm your details, there will be a pause, and this is where the scam begins. The account will send you another message showing shipping methods and you will be asked to pay a “handling/shipping fee”. Typically this will be aroud INR 2000 or more.
5. If the reward you are supposed to get is an iPhone 15 Pro Max, you will probably think “Well, it is an expensive device, so yeah ok, INR 2000 is not much”. This is a red flag, and at this stage I recommend you take screenshots of the chat, report it to cybercell, and block those accounts. However, if you have somehow committed to paying the amount, they will activate the next step in the scam.
6. The host account will ask you to pay the amount immediately and in the form of an Amazon Gift card. At this stage, simply exit the chat, report the account and move on with your life.

 

 

Ok, so we now spoke about the giveaway scams, and how to spot and protect yourself. But as a bonus, I will end this blog by explaining, how these scammers will rob you off your money.

If you agree to buy the gift card for them, they will ask you for the pin number of the gift card. You will give them the pin and then there will be a pause. The account will then send you a message saying the card has not worked or the card number has already been redeemed. You will be puzzled and the scammer will take advantage of this and say that “Hey, this happens a lot, don’t worry, just buy one more, and the money for the previous card will be refunded to you by Amazon in some time”.

There is no end to this loop, and they will try to extract as much money as they can from you. The moment you realise that you have been scammed and you stop buying the gift cards, the host account will block you, and that will be the end of that. Neither will you receive a refund for any of your purchases, nor will you ever receive that iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Scams like this are growing day by day, and while the target was elderly unaware audience in the past, the landscape has changed and these days, it is the ewer and younger generation that is being targetted. The temptation of that elusive iPhone can make youngsters do anything, and this is where scammers thrive. I request you all to please be careful, and exercise restraint online, as there are more criminals out there than genuine people, and your well being (Physical, Mental, and Financial) is paramount.