Lucky Draw Contest Scam - How to remove

The Lucky Draw Contest scam tricks people into giving their credit card data to dishonest actors who then abuse it. First, Lucky Draw Contest promises a free phone or another prize, then it takes personal information after saying that it’s needed to deliver this prize, and then uses the payment information to sign victims up for a subscription. Lucky Draw Contest scam sites appear as pop-ups online on malicious and infected websites.

About Lucky Draw Contest:

Classification	Scam.
Causes of Lucky Draw Contest pop-ups	Ads on low-quality, unsafe sites, ads shown by notification spammers, browser hijackers, and adware infections.
How the scam tricks people	Promises a prize, uses design elements copied from well-known, reputable sites to gain people’s trust, asks for credit card information under the pretense of confirming your location.
Dealing with the Lucky Draw Contest scam	If there is any malware on your computer, remove it with Combo Cleaner for macOS, Spyhunter for Windows, or other anti-malware scanners, if your account is being charged, cancel the subscription or block the charges, contact your bank for more support.

How Lucky Draw Contest scams work

Unknown company

Lucky Draw Contest scams started spreading online. These aren’t any different from the usual fake giveaways, like the Coin Master Spins one or the 5-billionth search scams, but this presentation is slightly new.

Lucky Draw Contest scams are not affiliated with any big companies. They may copy the design of Facebook.com (Lucky Draw Contest shows fake Facebook comments) and drop Apple’s name to appear more legitimate, but all they’re doing is impersonating these trusted companies to gain the trust of their victims.

The first Lucky Draw Contest scam that I came across greeted me like this:

Lucky Draw Contest
Congratulations Macintosh user!
Thank you for being an Macintosh fan, and therefore we offer you a unique opportunity to get an Apple iPhone 11 Pro today!
All you have to do is choose the right gift box.
You have 3 attempts, good luck!

So, this one says “We offer…”, but who is “we”? The webpage with the Lucky Draw Contest scam did not have any links to Terms of Service or Privacy Policy, no explanation as to who was supposed to be responsible this contest. Now revealing who the giveaway is done by is so suspicious.

The URLs used by scams like Lucky Draw Contest vary. New ones are created all the time as old ones are blocked by browsers and anti-malware programs. But to get an idea, here are a few examples: Clickandtake.net, Superprizesforyou.club, Luckywinner-today.com, Giftcenter.best. Be suspicious of similar URLs.

Scripted win

Next, Lucky Draw Contest says:

Lucky draw contest, only today – [date]
Dear Macintosh user,
Every Thursday, we chose 7 lucky Macintosh users from [Country], to receive a reward.
All you have to do is choose the right gift box.
Find the Apple iPhone 11 Pro

When the Lucky Draw Contest scam is taking place, I get to click on gift boxes until I win on the third try. No matter which boxes I click, I always win on the third try. I try even try the contest again and again and just keep winning. Lucky Draw Contest may try to stress me out with a countdown timer, though.

Getting the payment information

After the prize is “won”, Lucky Draw Contest then opens a new site. Right before, it shows this warning:

Conditions to request your gift:
1. On the next page, enter your contact information and shipping address;
2. Pay $ 1 to send your gift;
3. Your Apple iPhone 11 Pro will be delivered to the specified address within 5 business days through DHL.

Now, Lucky Draw Contest tells me to put in my payment information – name and credit card number. This is supposedly required to confirm my address because the contest only works in some countries (Lucky Draw Contest doesn’t say which, of course). I’m told to pay a token amount of $1.

This is where the scam seriously rears its head. Lucky Draw Contest asks for that $1 which is declined. But a couple of hours or days later, a sum of around $50 is charged (in other cases, it’s around $25). No phone or any other prize ever arrives. The scammers take the credit card info and start charging a monthly fee of somewhere between $10 and $60. The site that Lucky Draw Contest opened is not for paying for a phone; it’s for subscribing to a low-quality media subscription service (Gavenfun, Geekplay, Donnaplay, Eyrieplay, etc. – a bunch of sites by the same company).

There are clues. On the page where Lucky Draw Contest tells you to put in your payment information, there are references to “Regular Membership” and “Monthly Premium Membership”. If you read the Terms of Service on that page, it still doesn’t explain what exactly is going on but there’s a reference to the fact that, by starting your free trial, you authorize the company behind Lucky Draw Contest to continue your month-to-month subscription. There’s no way that this payment is for the shipping of a single item. Even if the page does insist in the upper left that the payment is for a phone.

So, in the conclusion of the Lucky Draw Contest scam, not only do I miss out on this new iPhone but I’m also going to be charged a monthly fee for a service that I unwittingly subscribed to and can’t even use because I don’t know about it.

How to deal with the Lucky Draw Contest scam

If you come across another site that looks similar, just close it. Visiting a scam site alone isn’t dangerous and doesn’t infect your computer. But seeing such ads regularly is concerning; it might indicate that your computer is infected with adware.

Lucky Draw Contest is a malicious pop-up. It probably appeared when you were on a website that shows malicious ads. Adware infections may also be responsible for the Lucky Draw Contest pop-ups. To see if there’s adware or a browser hijacker on your computer, scan it for infections. Use a reputable anti-malware app, such as Combo Cleaner for Mac, Spyhunter for PC, and others. Use an anti-malware app or an ad-blocker to block malicious sites that spread scams like Lucky Draw Contest.

Those who did give away their credit card information because of Lucky Draw Contest and lost money need to look at your credit card statements and contact the website that changed you. Demand to get your money back. Then again, contacting scammers isn’t always a good idea. You can instead contact your bank and request a chargeback or report the transaction.

You can demand to have your subscription canceled but again, it can be difficult to get scammers to cooperate. It’s a better idea to contact your bank and tell them everything that happened. For now, the Lucky Draw Contest scam cost tends to be around $50 – but who knows what can happen in the future when your payment info is in the hands of those willing to abuse it.

Here are a couple of articles that might be helpful: What to do if youve become the victim of a subscription scam, How to get your money back after a scam.

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