Cool Ideas Giveaway Scam [Not Cool Ideas]

I

InTheCube

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So I was browsing a torrent site today, using my Cool Ideas fibre connection at home, and got hit with a popup supposedly from Cool Ideas, that looked quite legit. Basically a competition/giveaway to get your hands on 1 of 100 cellphones. I knew it was a con (being a popup from a torrent site), but it was a very well crafted con, so I went through the steps to try to claim the phone just for interests sake, to see how well crafted it was, how far it would go, and what would be the end result. You had to basically fill in a multi-page customer survey supposedly from Cool Ideas - each page having 1 question with a few answers to choice from (so multiple choice). Everything was branded Cool Ideas, had their logo, and the site design looked similar to the real Cool Ideas website. What I found the most impressive though, is that they seem to have detected from my IP address that I'm a Cool Ideas customer, and thus presented me with that specific scam.

At the end of the survey, they ask you to choose your phone, and then the catch that gave it away - you have to pay $1 - $5 for delivery.

Not sure if I posted this in the correct place, but if not, mods please move it. This should hopefully serve as a warning to other customers not to fall for it, and for Cool Ideas (my current and favourite fibre ISP) to investigate.

Below are some screenshots. I didn't try go any further beyond the last screenshot.

Edit: The URLs in the screenshot are cut off. Here they are in full:

https://discount-nation.com/?lem=R7...fo1=5c3c788db6920d02dc52d139&email=&info2=168

https://samegiftboxes.info/1/coolid...fd609f13cb7947c8cabfe1a90d%26psid%3D14213579#
 

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Last edited:
Methinks it was a porn site you were surfing
 
S.Claus said:
But how ? Windows 10 has a pretty decent built in firewall/antivirus program .

PS @Saajid Stream your after hours content
Click to expand...

Not really. Malware can disable it before windows defender deletes and stops it. It hijacks the admin account the you get an error in Microsoft defender saying that "Your company is managing security please contact your IT department"

As for the Adware it's injected in the browser and popups appear.

Use Malwarebytes Adware cleaner to remove. It's free.
 
S.Claus said:
But how ? Windows 10 has a pretty decent built in firewall/antivirus program .

PS @Saajid Stream your after hours content
Click to expand...

I'm not too concerned about malware/adware affecting me. I work in IT, so know how to stay protected. Last infection/attack I had was over 10 years ago. Main thing is to be sensible, use a good antivirus and firewall (in this case Windows Defender on Win10), keep Windows, drivers, software and firmware up to date, and stay away from pirated software.

Regarding streaming - content is downloaded into Plex, and then streamed over my local network. Which reminds me, I need to rewnew my Plexpass subscription.
 
Saajid said:
I'm not too concerned about malware/adware affecting me. I work in IT, so know how to stay protected. Last infection/attack I had was over 10 years ago. Main thing is to be sensible, use a good antivirus and firewall (in this case Windows Defender on Win10), keep Windows, drivers, software and firmware up to date, and stay away from pirated software.

Regarding streaming - content is downloaded into Plex, and then streamed over my local network. Which reminds me, I need to rewnew my Plexpass subscription.
Click to expand...
Think they had the lifetime one with some father days as the voucher code for $80 let me know if you need the code. Will need to go do some digging on plexaholics for it
 
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