On June 22, 2024, scammers posted a Starbucks product review gift card scam offer in the form of TikTok photo slideshows. The scam appeared on the TikTok account for the user named @aliecesworld. Sbux100.com was the website scammers mentioned. The photo slideshows falsely claimed users had the opportunity to earn a $100 gift card after leaving a Starbucks product review on sbux100.com.
In this video, I’ll reveal everything about the Starbucks product review gift card scam and the website sbux100.com. Further, for related reading, I previously published an article exposing two schemes similar to the Starbucks product review gift card scam. All of the scams originated on TikTok. One scam promised a $750 Target gift card in exchange for a Target Circle product review via 750Circle.com. The other scam claimed to offer a $750 Walmart gift card via 750Review.com, also for a product review.
Starbucks Product Review Scam on TikTok
The Starbucks product review gift card offer showing up in TikTok scam videos featured a fake story about a fired worker named Alice. One post from June 22 earned 16.3 million views. That post also received over 1.3 million likes, 3,049 comments, 161,700 bookmarks and 20,800 shares. A second post also from June 22 received over 600,000 views. A third video displayed 466,000 views.
The first photo in the slideshow supposedly showed the woman named Alice at Starbucks. In reality, the woman displayed in the pictures had no involvement with the scam. The slide read, “Now that I’m fired from Starbucks for being late 5 minutes, time to expose all their secrets.”
The post’s text caption also read, “I didn’t expect that Starbucks #starbucks #starbucksbarista.”
The fifth slide featured the supposedly real Starbucks product review $100 gift card offer scam claim. It said, “You can do the Starbucks product review at sbux100.com for a $100 Starbucks gift card.”
One past trend in the world of scams was pretending a fired employee said they would reveal company secrets. I’ve seen this before with fake jewelry websites. With those scams, the supposed fired employee offered a 100 percent off discount or promo code in TikTok videos. However, the scam still took money from users anyway.
As for the TikTok posts about a Starbucks product review gift card scam, the posts simply existed as one of the latest such fired-employee scheme promoted online.
Information About Sbux100.com
According to a WHOIS domain name search on GoDaddy.com, an unknown person registered the fake Starbucks product review scam website Sbux100.com on June 16, 2024.
Upon visiting Sbux100.com, the website displayed a Starbucks logo and read, “Click Below to Claim Your $100 Starbucks Gift Card.” The steps included “Click the link below,” “Enter your email & basic info,” “Complete the product survey,” “Complete recommended deals” and “Receive your gift card.”
The website redirected me to a page named My Opportunity Finder via awesomedealsfinder.com. Gonitromedia.com appeared to operate awesomedealsfinder.com. Unsurprisingly, the website never presented any legitimate offer of completing a Starbucks product review to earn a $100 Starbucks gift card.
I strongly advise readers not waste time with awesomedealsfinder.com. Awesomedealsfinder.com reminded me of super sketchy survey scam websites.
Why To Avoid Survey Scam Websites
In a general sense, survey scam websites make a lot of promises but only end up wasting users’ time. The websites ask users to complete a seemingly endless number of surveys. The survey pages continually redirect users from website to website.
After spending several minutes or hours on the surveys, readers might find it difficult to keep track of which websites they visited. That’s a problem, especially when some survey scam websites request users’ personal information. In some cases, the websites also request users provide a credit card number to sign up for “free trial” services they’ll need to remember to cancel later.
The Scammers’ Goal
From what I can gather, the likely goal of the scammers who registered Sbux100.com was to earn commissions based on duping users. The people who posted the TikTok photo slideshows promising a $100 gift card for a Starbucks product review hoped users visited Sbux100.com. If just a handful of users spent at least several minutes wasting their time filling out surveys and providing personal information and financial data, the scammers would make commissions.
Some of the offers presented to users on awesomedealsfinder.com displayed very small text saying the website or subsequent websites would provide users’ submitted contact information to third-party companies for marketing purposes, such as for phone calls, as well as text and email messages.
It’s also possible the same people who create pesky survey scam websites also market their own scams, whether in TikTok videos or other methods, while at the very same time pretending to be affiliates.
For any readers unfamiliar with affiliate marketing, think of it like this: Affiliate marketing is a method when people not directly involved with a business participate in the company’s affiliate program and attempt to make commissions off of sales of their products.
Readers should be cautious if they ever see further gift card promises in surveys involving a supposd Starbucks product review. Such an offer is likely to be too good to be true. After all, if an online offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Quick Story About Falsely Blaming Affiliate Marketers
In the past, I published a story on another website about professional-looking YouTube ads making numerous false claims about a brand of supposed weight loss supplements. According to the ads, the supplements help consumers get rid of excess waste normally relieved in the bathroom. I won’t name names.
I emailed the company to ask about the ads. A spokesperson for the company became quite defensive in their replies. They apparently didn’t like the fact someone contacted them to question the scams surrounding their strange products. The company spokesperson told me an affiliate marketer was to blame for the scammy video appearing in so many YouTube ads.
However, here’s the thing: Around two or three years later, I found proof the business created the scammy YouTube ads. I always thought they were behind the ads but did not know for sure until much later.
From what I can tell, the strategy of blaming affiliates seems to be the norm for a lot of scammy companies. After all, all a business has to do is say, “Hey, look. That was an affiliate. They violated our affiliate terms. The ads have been removed.” Then, they can say thank you for assisting in finding the scammy ad. In reality, though, nothing will have changed, and the scam will continue.
Did You Lose Money in the Starbucks Product Review Scam?
If any readers fell for this Starbucks product review scam for the $100 gift card or any other scams involving the giving away of financial information, contact your financial institution. For example, if you submitted credit card information, contact that credit card company.
Further, I recommend filing fraud reports with the FTC, FBI and other organizations.