Did you receive a call claiming to be from AT&T offering you a cash reward? This is likely a scam you should avoid.
It’s a Phishing Scam.
We first received this phone call in January 2013, and our readers have continued to report such calls as recently as October 2014. The caller ID read 800-000-0000. The voice mail was cut off, but in part said, “att550.com… www.att550.com. Simply log into your account to redeem your $550 dollars. At AT&T we care about you. Thank you and have a nice day.”
This is a fraudulent website which is attempting to gain your personal information.
When we originally posted this article, the bogus att550.com website closely resembled a real AT&T website. A whois look-up revealed that the website was created the same day we received that phone call. The fake website also asked for the last 4 digits of our social security number, which AT&T does not do on their website. As of October 2014, that domain now forwards to what appears to be an unrelated training website.
We have called AT&T on several occasions and they have confirmed that they’ve received complaints about this scam. Below is a screenshot of the fake AT&T website with the “Wireless mega-discount” login screen:
Not long after we first posted this article in January 2013, the att500 website was shut down. The scam, however, continued with multiple variations used over the past 2 years.
Below are some of the URLs reported by our readers:
- att99.com
- att149.com
- att320.com
- att440.com
- att525.com
- att600.com
- att620.com
- att625.com
- att660.com
- att750.com
- att820.com
In April 2014 we received an increase in complaints that this same scam was also using the domain attmegadiscount.com.
The Google Chrome browser has blocked access to some of the domains above, stating that they are phishing websites.
Bottom Line
If you receive a phone call claiming to be from AT&T, stating that you’ve won a cash prize, it is likely a phishing scam which will direct you to a fraudulent website that will attempt to gain your personal information.
Let us know if you have seen this scam.
Updated October 22, 2014
Originally published January 2013