800-579-3304

new  ATT WIRELESS PHONE SCAM
How it works

You get a phone call from an 800 number with an automated recording that tells you to visit a website after alerting you of a monetary value (they call it a discount) for your account. According to their instructions, you’re supposed to log into your AT&T account on this site and an account representative will review the claim and apply the credit to your account within a couple of days. This scam can offer you any amount of money, but the premise is the same.
Transcript: “To redeem your $1,000, please visit www.attdiscount1000.com; www.attdiscount1000.com. Simply log into your account to redeem your $1,000. At AT&T, we care about you. Thank you and have a nice day!”

The problem is that the domain they used looked shady from the get-go. Granted, many companies today use random domains and URLs to market various contests and special offers, so I wasn’t immediately thrown off. However, in almost all cases where a legitimate company has used a special marketing domain, once you type it in, you are usually redirected to the official site where you can read the details about said offer and sign into your account.

AT&T scam siteIn this case, I was told to go to www.attdiscount1000.com (domain has already been taken down) because I had a $1,000 discount waiting for me. I already assumed it was a scam, so I decided to check it out and see how well they set it up. As expected, the site looked exactly like AT&T’s official site but it didn’t have any of the navigational menus or other vital links that would likely give up their scam to savvy users.



Protect yourself

Just going to websites like these isn’t usually dangerous — unless of course the site tries to install some malicious software or something.