Beware of this scam Heineken Father’s Day contest

Promoted as a Father’s Day present, scammers are sending fake WhatsApp messages that advertise a hoax Heineken competition to win a beer cooler.

Find out how to spot, report and avoid this scam.

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Heineken Father’s Day WhatsApp Scam

The scam text promotes a ‘Heineken Beer Father’s Day Contest 2022’ and claims that ‘5,000 coolers full of Heineken beers’ are available to claim.

The message is sent next to an image of a pack of Heineken beers and includes a link to scam website set up to steal your details.

How to spot fake WhatsApp messages

Always be suspicious of a message from an unknown number, no matter how tempting the offer may be.

It’s always best to check a brand’s official website and social media to see if there’s any mention of the promotion.

Never click on links in messages as scammers can use URLs to download malware onto your device or take you to a website that will try to steal your personal and bank details.

If you have clicked on a suspicious link and think you may have given your details away to a scam, you should contact your bank immediately and report the scam to Action Fraud, or the police if you live in Scotland. You should also be wary of any unexpected calls claiming to be from your bank or its fraud department.

Reporting scam messages

If you receive a random text or WhatsApp message from a brand that you discover is fraudulent, open up the WhatsApp chat from the unknown number, open the sender's contact details and select 'Block and Report'. 

You can report suspicious text messages to 7726, a free spam reporting service, as well as to the company the text was claiming to be from.

Read our guide to find out how to spot a text scam, and learn how to report scams to help reduce their spread.