We are pleased to announce that we will be donating 670 ATVs that cannot be sold due to minor scratches, as they are still in excellent condition. So we will randomly send it to someone who writes their favorite color. example “red”[sic]Can we read in a Facebook post a page with the colors of the Decathlon store.

This is just one of the reported posts decoders over the past few days.

When people type a color in the comments, an automated message appears asking them to share the post to at least nine Facebook groups in order to share.

Then they are invited to registration By directing them to another website that includes the Decathlon logo. This is when they are asked for their personal information, including name, address, email and phone number.

Decathlon did not respond to email from decoders Posted Thursday morning. However, it is clear that the Facebook pages that organize these “contests” are fake. They were all created in the last few weeks and mostly have a few subscribers. Some of them are run by people who live in Indonesia.

In addition, any contest targeting Quebec residents whose prize money exceeds $100 must post the official rules, according to Quebec’s Régie des alcools, desours et des jeux (RACJ). This is not done on these Facebook pages.

A recurring and widespread phenomenon

The phenomenon of fake contests on Facebook is not new. In 2019, . was released decoders Identified a network of 17 Facebook pages that organize such mock contests. These are similar in all respects to those sporting the colors Decathlon selected this week.

At the time, web security expert Jean-Philippe Decari Mathieu explained to us that people who enter their personal data thinking they are participating in these contests risk exposing themselves to identity theft.

scam type phishing (phishing), they just got a lot of information. The more data points a fraudster has on someone, the more they can do something against themexplained.

Also in 2019, a woman from Quebec was captured in decoders After she lost more than $800 after entering a fake contest to win an iPhone, created by a fake Instagram page of singer Mary May.