$50 for a 5 minute survey?   Yeah, Right!

Out of curiosity, I clicked on the email this morning to see what would happen.

There are a few clues that all is not what it seems - firstly 'payed' looks wrong - obviously.  Likewise I notice that the email came from 'macdonald.co.nz'  (as opposed to 'mcdonalds.co.nz').  I'm also wondering how McDonalds would have my email address, and how they could possibly give away $50 to everyone - its not a prize draw - every respondent allegedly gets $50. 

My curiosity is piqued!  Lets take a closer look! Start the survey and a very professional website appears.  But the URL is out - http://www.ado.idv.tw/www.mcdonalds.co.nz/ Curious that my Norton 'Safe Site' tool doesn't pick this up - in fact it's 'safe'.

The test is a bit off - errors like "The reason why you are here it's because our company wants to improve the quality of services"  and the incentive has changed to a draw to win a Honda CRV.

One of the first questions asks for my drivers license number?  Huh?  Why would you need that?  No, we won't anmswer that one.

Going further, it wants you to give them your credit card number and all it's security details.  I don't think so, and that's where I bail out.  But unfortunately, many people will charge on, trusting the McDonalds brand (I feel sorry for these brands that get stolen in this way), and the people that do load their details will join the statistics of internet fraud victims.  Remember to be alert to these con-artists!

Update : We've noticed that the official McDonalds website contains a warning about the scam - check it here