Scam alert: fake Smeg Kettle giveaway email

New phishing emails impersonating the well-known electrical retailer Currys offer you the chance to win a free electric Smeg kettle by clicking on a dodgy link.

The link leads to a website that asks you to complete a survey about your shopping habits before asking you to pay a small delivery fee to receive the free kettle.

This is a common tactic to tempt you to give away your personal and financial details which we saw in a similar scam that used Facebook posts to advertise BP fuel cards for £1.78 - this scam asked you to complete a survey and pay a small fee to receive this too-good-to-be-true offer. 

Find out more about this fake Smeg giveaway scam and how to report it.

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Smeg kettle scam email

Although the email purports to be a Currys offer, it's sent by [hello@simplyflying.com] and states: ‘Hurry up. The number of prizes to be won is limited! Confirm Now!'

Next to an image of the kettle, the email claims it's offering ‘The Newest Model Yet’ with a link to 'Get it Now'. 

The email also uses the official Currys logo beside the words ‘Congratulations! You have been chosen to participate in our Loyalty Program for FREE!’ with a second link to confirm your participation in the loyalty scheme. 

Under this link, it says ‘It will take you only a minute to receive this fantastic prize…Electric Smeg Kettle.’

We don't recommend that you click on these links, but for the purposes of our research, we took a look at the website to understand how the scam worked. The link in the email leads to a dodgy website [yearnleaning.com], which was created on 1 August 2022. 

When you enter the site, you are greeted with a pop-up that reads:

‘Dear customer Congratulations! We would like to offer you a unique opportunity to receive a brand new Smeg Kettle!

‘To claim, simply take this short survey about your experience with us. Your opinion is very valuable. Click OK to begin.’

The webpage also includes some apparent reviews and includes a timer to add pressure to complete the offer, the timer oddly resets to six minutes once it runs out.

If you proceed to the next step you're asked eight survey questions about your Currys shopping habits and satisfaction with the retailer's service - while this information is unlikely to give the scammer anything of value, it does add to the theatre of the scam giving you the impression that you are on a genuine Currys website. The website also claims ‘authenticity’ certificates, and includes a privacy policy, terms and conditions and a disclaimer that states that the website isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by any trademarks or trade names.

After this, you are directed to another website that asks you to pay a £2 shipping fee to receive the ‘free’ Smeg kettle, collecting both your payment details and address.

Spotting and reporting phishing emails

The email is sent from an address that isn’t from a known Currys domain, which is a clear sign that it’s not genuine. Sometimes scammers can mask the sender ID in emails by spoofing, but in this case, it was fairly obvious that the email didn't come from Currys. 

The urgent tone of the email encourages you to click on links that will ask for sensitive details, which often indicates that it's a scam. The links also went to websites that aren't connected to Currys' official website. 

If you're being asked to pay for a competition you didn't enter, act with extreme caution. Product giveaways and competitions will likely be advertised on the brand’s official website or social media channels, so make sure to always check the brand's official channels if you receive an email like this.

Recipients of this scam contacted Currys on Twitter to alert the retailer to these phishing emails and the dodgy website. Currys has confirmed that the emails aren't a genuine offer.

People have also been receiving similar giveaways that claim to offer barbeque grills, Apple AirPods, smart watches, drills and air fryers.

Report scam emails by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk. . You can also use Hotmail’s 'Report phishing' button and Gmail’s 'Report spam' button to report scam emails.

Report suspicious websites to the National Cyber Security Centre.