Morrisons warns Facebook users of fake £250 voucher scam

Facebook users are being warned of a scam offering free £250 vouchers that purports to come from Morrisons.

The fraudsters are attempting to trick people into clicking on a link promising free vouchers from the supermarket chain with a message saying: ‘Free £250 Gift Voucher From Morrison' .

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The criminals are probably trying to gain Facebook users' personal information, warned Morrisons.

"Unfortunately, spammers have been pretending to be Morrisons when they have nothing to do with us. They may be trying to access your personal data and do not intend to give you a free gift voucher," the supermarket said.

This is the latest attempt for a ‘supermarket sweep' that has appeared on Facebook. Last autumn both Tesco and Asda were 'chosen' as the brands to front two scams, through which people were encouraged to qualify for £250 vouchers by joining Facebook events pages.

The brand name of another well-known UK brand, Argos, was used in May in another collection of fake adverts. These were pulled by Facebook after Computeractive staff contacted the social media site.

A link to a statement on Morrisons' Facebook page outlines the scam saying:

"Warning: We'd like to remind our fans to not follow the instructions on the page 'Free £250 Gift Voucher From Morrisons' that is being circulated around Facebook – this is a scam."

Morrisons told us it had informed Facebook of the problem but the page is not hosted on the social-networking site. Because people have fallen for the scam it appears as a 'Liked' page.

As well as the warning on its Facebook page, the company said it was personally replying to people who had emailed it asking about the fake vouchers, warning it is a scam.