Have you come across a website called CostReviews.com that promises a $750 Costco gift card if you complete an online survey? Maybe you saw their ads using the official Costco logo and thought it looked legit.
Question: Is this website really connected to Costco and are these gift cards real and safe to claim?
Investigation Findings: The website URL is not the official Costco site—it’s costreviews.com instead of costco.com. Scammers often use similar-looking web addresses to trick people. Although the site uses the Costco logo, the design and wording are generic and unprofessional. It asks for your personal info and to complete surveys, which is a common way to collect data or lead you to further scams.
Answer:CostReviews.com is a fake scam pretending to offer $750 Costco gift cards. 💡 To protect yourself from scams like this, always check the website address carefully and never share personal information on suspicious sites. If you want to know about real offers, visit the official Costco website directly. Additionally, avoid clicking links from unknown sources and trust only verified promotions.
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CostReviews.com Scam in detail
CostReviews.com is a survey scam used primarily to harvest victim details that can be used in identity theft and fraud. Sometimes this scam can be used to trick you into signing up for a “free trial” offer that’s actually an expensive subscription to products that you did not agree to buy.
CostReviews.com says that you have a chance to receive a reward by taking part in a survey. Unfortunately, anyone who follows the instructions detailed on the site will fall victim to the scam.
After answering the questions, you will be redirected to another page containing a form that you must fill out with your personal data (email address, etc). As mentioned above, the goal of scammers is to obtain your personal details, as well as your credit card information. Scammers can use your email and personal information to run phishing scams, steal identities for personal and financial gain. Moreover, the criminals can use stolen email addresses and phone numbers to send spam and malspam (spam emails containing malware or links to malware).
This scam is used primarily to harvest your personal details that can be used in identity theft and fraud. Sometimes this scam can be used to trick you into signing up for a “free trial” offer that’s actually an expensive subscription to products that you did not agree to buy.
In addition, CostReviews.com tries to trick you into allowing browser push notifications. Scammers use push notifications to bypass protection against pop-ups in the internet browser and display unwanted ads. These ads are used to promote fake dating sites, malicious browser extensions, giveaway scams, various diet pills and other questionable content.
Here are some examples of the scam notifications (fake alerts, messages from fake dating sites):
To summarize, CostReviews.com is a SCAM. It can lead to malware infection, loss of data, financial losses, theft of personal information and other serious problems.
How to identify Survey Scams
Common Survey Scams often have similar red flags, such as a sense of urgency or a request for money. Here’s how to identify a Survey scam before it happens.
- If you receive a pop-up message that invites you to take part a Survey, don’t respond or click on any links. Stop and think. An unexpected message is often the first sign of a scam. Scammers use this tactic to harvest your personal information.
- The most obvious way how to spot a fake Survey is finding inconsistencies in domain names, phone numbers and email addresses. If the text claims to be from the Google, but the message is being sent from a random phone number or email address, it’s probably a scam.
- Copy a Survey link from the message, use a free URL Checker (https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/url) to check suspicious links. It allows checking the safety of a link without clicking on it.
- If you have the slightest suspicion a Survey may be a scam, do not click on the links you see.
- The text message creates a sense of urgency. Creating a false sense of urgency is a common trick of phishing scams. Be suspicious of texts that claim you must call or click a link immediately.
Examples of such scams
A few examples of such survey scams: You’ve made the 5-billionth search, CashApp Reward Survey SCAM, 2023 Annual Visitor Survey, $750 Cash App Survey, Chrome search contest 2022.
In fact, there are many more, the Internet is full of fraudulent websites, ads, social media pages, and apps promoting different “giveaway”, “online survey”, and other “get rich quick” schemes. So be careful!
How to protect against Survey Scams
To avoid becoming a victim of scammers, it is important to always keep in mind:
- NO ONE EVER WINS MONEY OR PRIZES IN THESE SCAMS!
- NEVER share your personal information.
- Legitimate surveys do not require the disclosure of confidential, personal or financial information.
- Use the official website of the company sponsoring the survey to verify that the survey is legitimate.
- Use an ad blocker. Ad blockers allow you to browse sites without ads, thus eliminating the possibility of clicking on something malicious and preventing it from being downloaded to the device.
- Pay for premium versions of popular services. The easiest way to avoid malvertising (malicious advertisements) and phishing pages is to pay for the service you use. Many Internet services make it possible to use them without ads if you purchase a premium subscription. This helps ensure that malicious ads cannot reach you.
Close the CostReviews.com pop-up as soon as it appears on your computer screen. Scammers can prevent you from closing it in various ways. In such cases, close your browser using Task Manager or restart your computer. If the next time you launch the browser, it prompts you to restore the previous session, abandon it, otherwise this scam will reopen on your screen.
Threat Summary
| Name | CostReviews.com |
| Type | survey scam, phishing, fake survey |
| Detection names | malware, malicious, suspicious |
| Whois Details | Domain Details: Domain Name: COSTREVIEWS.COM Registrar: NameCheap, Inc. Creation Date: 2025-01-08 Registry Expiry Date: 2026-01-08 Name Server: DNS1.REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM Registrant Information: |
| Distribution | rogue ad networks, adware bundles, suspicious websites |
| Damage | loss of personal data, disclosure of confidential information, financial losses |
Conclusion
The CostReviews.com “$750 Costco Gift Card” offer is a scam, designed to deceive users into providing personal information through fake giveaways and misleading promises. This fraudulent site imitates legitimate Costco branding, but is entirely unaffiliated with the official Costco website, www.costco.com.
The scammers behind CostReviews.com employ fake incentives, such as a large $750 gift card claim, to lure unsuspecting visitors into completing endless surveys and sharing sensitive data. Despite the professional-looking logos and “https” security badge, these elements are easily faked to create a false sense of trustworthiness.
The website’s generic design, suspicious URL, and dubious instructions reveal its true intent to harvest your information rather than reward you. Legitimate companies rarely offer sizable gifts without clear terms or purchases involved, so unsolicited offers like this should always be treated with skepticism.
Bottom Line: Avoid interacting with CostReviews.com or similar sites promising large Costco gift cards in exchange for personal details. Always verify offers directly with official company websites, and never provide private information on unverified platforms. Stay vigilant against these phishing scams to protect your data and privacy.
