If it's too good to be true, it most certainly is !!
Today it was revealed that a certain advert on Facebook ads tried to scam people using the name of Xiaomi (小米). Xiaomi is a Chinese designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics and related software, home appliances, and household items. Apparently this imposter scam runs across regions in South East Asia like Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines.
While Xiaomi is famous for selling goods near cost price but there is no way the company can sell overwhelmingly below cost price. The official Xiaomi page has confirmed and revealed there are scammers baiting people on Facebook with this scam. Come to think of it, the Facebook ads costs more than the price advertise already. The scammers will explain that the reason why it's selling so cheap is because the company is trying to clear past year stocks.
Once the victim clicks on the link he will be brought to a form whereby he will need to key in some personal details and there is a segment to key in the victim's bank account and credit card details to pay the the advertised amount. Once the victim's credit card details, the scammers will empty the credit card by making online purchases. A lot of the online merchants still do not require tac/otp verification and hence why the credit card can be drained.
The landing page to buy the ultra cheap escooter is also quite real, with fake customer reviews and comments all putting the promotion in a very positive light. There's even real time fake notification of people putting orders on the escooter popping up now and there to create the illusion of demand.
These scam ads eventually will get banned but at the meantime it will be able to scam some unsuspecting people.
Updates 20221210
Upon further checking, this escooter giveaway scam also seems to be scamming other parts of the western world but instead of doing Xiami escooter, the scam uses Segway escooter as the giveaway bait.
