Online users, be aware of fake messages like the one below, which claim Pizza Hut is giving away 2 free large pizzas to everyone to celebrate their 60th anniversary. The messages contain a link that looks similar to Pizza Hut's website address or name and goes to a fake Pizza Hut website created by cybercriminals that asks visitors to complete a survey and share the same scam with their friends via WhatsApp, in order to receive their so-called free pizzas.
Visitors may also be tricked into sending their personal information to the scammers behind the fake messages, who will start sending them other fake messages with links to phishing websites that steal online account credentials and credit card information. They may also be sent messages with links to malicious websites that infect computers and mobile devices with viruses, spyware, and other malware.
The "Pizza Hut 2 FREE Large Pizzas" Giveaway Scam
*Pizzahut is giving away 2 FREE Large Pizza to everyone* to celebrate its 60 years of quality service. Get free pizza at :
hxxp://www.pîzzahut.com/free-large-pizza/ ->
hxxp://www.xn--pzzahut-gza.com/free-large-pizza
We are celebrating our 60th anniversary and Giving away 2 FREE large pizza to everyone!
Congratuation!
You have been qualified to get 2 Free Large Pizza! How to proceed.
1. Share it to 20 of your friends/groups via WHATSAPP(click on the "WhatsApp" icon below)
2. Click on "Order Free Pizza" and enter your address details.
3. You will receive your pizza in an hour.
The fake website address is: www.pîzzahut.com.
And, the legitimate Pizza Hut website address is: www.pizzahut.com
Glancing at both website addresses they look the same, but if you look carefully, you will notice that the "i" in the fake website address is actually the accented Latin small letter "î".
Here are the two characters side by side, so you may note the difference:
i - î
Recipients of the "Pizza Hut 2 FREE Large Pizzas" giveaway scam are asked to delete them and should not click the link in them or share them with their friends via WhatsApp or other social media platforms.
In October 2017, multiple versions of this same scam titled “Pizza Hut is giving 3 FREE Large Pizza Coupon on their 58th Anniversary” was circulated on Facebook. The link in the message went to the following fake Pizza Hut websites:
- hxxp://pizzahutfree.us
- hxxp://pizzahut.com-freezones.us
- hxxp://pizzahut.com-freezones.us
- hxxp://massiveoffers.xyz
This scam has been circulating on social media for the past two years. Pizza Hut is aware of the scam and has posted the following message on social media to warn the public:
"To our valued customers: There is a fraudulent coupon circulating on Facebook claiming to offer a free pizza from Pizza Hut; the posts link to a site that requires users to share with 15 friends in order to redeem.
This is a scam. This was not created by Pizza Hut. Please know that any valid offer would be hosted on an official Pizza Hut channel: pizzahut.com, pizzahut.com/deals or Pizza Hut's social media pages.
Please help us stop these scammers by reporting to Facebook any posts claiming to offer free pizza “to celebrate Pizza Hut’s 60th anniversary."
To verify a Pizza Hut promotion, it is recommended that online users do it on the following web pages: