Strange Facebook scam falsely offers Aldi “meat boxes” for less than $10, but only steals your card details

Malwarebytes warned of a Facebook scam targeting users over 40 with fake offers for Aldi meat boxes
Victims are funneled through fake landing pages and games before being asked for personally identifiable information and credit card data.
Researchers warn that these types of posts are designed for phishing and fraud, urging skepticism toward “too good to be true” social media offers.

Security researchers Malwarebytes have warned of an ongoing scam on Facebook that attempts to steal personally identifiable information (PII), as well as credit card data, from people aged 40 or older.

In this bizarre scam, a Facebook user (probably a fake or compromised account) claims that people over 40 can get a box of Aldi meat for less than $10, as long as they fill out a form and sign up for a service.

“It sounds crazy, but it really worked,” the post says. “They’re removing excess stock and instead of throwing it away, they’re basically letting people have it for next to nothing. All I did was fill out a short form.”

Faking Aldi

That form, the user claims, took about a minute to complete. They concluded the post by saying that the worst thing that could happen is “you lose a minute.”

But according to Pieter Arntz of Malwarebytes, people can waste much more than a minute of their time. After clicking on the link provided, the researcher first had his device fingerprinted, after which he was redirected to a fake Aldi homepage.

The page displayed a fake gift box game (like those often seen on Temu) and after “winning” the game (the page is designed so that the victim cannot really lose), he was redirected again, this time to a page where he was asked to provide more details.

The criminals asked for everything: names, addresses, phone numbers and even credit card information to pay for the box of meat and faster delivery.

“If a listing promises a box of premium meat for the price of a sandwich, assume it’s a scam until you can prove otherwise,” Arntz concluded. He also shared an extensive list of red flags found in the post, as well as a checklist on how to make sure you don’t get scammed on social media.

As with all online scams, if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is, especially now that barbecue season is still a few weeks away.