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I thought it was worth documenting this John Lewis survey scam as I can't see any mentions of it on the internet!
My 91 year old dad went to order a new iPad Pro from John Lewis last week - the bigger the better for his poor eyesight! While chatting with him he mentioned that John Lewis forced him to complete a survey when he first visited their website.
This didn't sound right (even though lots of websites do launch a survey request as soon as you arrive!) so I had a look at his PC history to work out what had happened...
My dad typed wwwjohnlewis.co.uk - missing the 'dot' out after www!
It turns out someone has registered this URL to catch people making this typo!
The site redirects the visitor to visitorsurveyscenter.com where they continue to reference John Lewis (picked up from the referrer) helping to trick the unwary.
View screengrab
The text reads:
Popup:
Congratulations John Lewis Visitor!
You have been selected to participate in an anonymous survey about your experiences with John Lewis.
At the end of the short 30-second survey, you will be offered an exclusive reward (worth at least £50) for providing us with valuable consumer data.
Main page:
Hi, my name is Alice Boyle and we have selected you to participate in a short 30-second survey about John Lewis. Please tell me about your experiences with John Lewis and in exchange for your valuable consumer data, we will offer you a few exclusive regards worth at least £50 or more!
Want to know what the rewards are for this week? Complete this survey to find out!
My dad did think the survey was legit and started to complete it before abandoning it - but only because he wasn't interested. He later returned to the correct John Lewis URL to get his iPad.
It doesn't look as if the websites contained malware and the scam is to get people to pay for the 'free gift'.
I contacted both John Lewis and Nominet(re. the co.uk URL) to see if there was anything that could be done to protect others - but they don't appear to be too interested...
Searching for the visitorsurveyscenter URL it looks like there are many mistyped popular URLs that have been registered to redirect visitors.
In the past the advice to stay safe was to always type a URL directly into an address bar rather than search, but using Google to search for John Lewis would have actually been safer!
NOTE I haven't added links to the dodgy URLs I mention below and don't recommend visiting them unless you have a disposable device!My 91 year old dad went to order a new iPad Pro from John Lewis last week - the bigger the better for his poor eyesight! While chatting with him he mentioned that John Lewis forced him to complete a survey when he first visited their website.
This didn't sound right (even though lots of websites do launch a survey request as soon as you arrive!) so I had a look at his PC history to work out what had happened...
My dad typed wwwjohnlewis.co.uk - missing the 'dot' out after www!
It turns out someone has registered this URL to catch people making this typo!
The site redirects the visitor to visitorsurveyscenter.com where they continue to reference John Lewis (picked up from the referrer) helping to trick the unwary.
View screengrab
The text reads:
Popup:
Congratulations John Lewis Visitor!
You have been selected to participate in an anonymous survey about your experiences with John Lewis.
At the end of the short 30-second survey, you will be offered an exclusive reward (worth at least £50) for providing us with valuable consumer data.
Main page:
Hi, my name is Alice Boyle and we have selected you to participate in a short 30-second survey about John Lewis. Please tell me about your experiences with John Lewis and in exchange for your valuable consumer data, we will offer you a few exclusive regards worth at least £50 or more!
Want to know what the rewards are for this week? Complete this survey to find out!
My dad did think the survey was legit and started to complete it before abandoning it - but only because he wasn't interested. He later returned to the correct John Lewis URL to get his iPad.
It doesn't look as if the websites contained malware and the scam is to get people to pay for the 'free gift'.
I contacted both John Lewis and Nominet(re. the co.uk URL) to see if there was anything that could be done to protect others - but they don't appear to be too interested...
Searching for the visitorsurveyscenter URL it looks like there are many mistyped popular URLs that have been registered to redirect visitors.
In the past the advice to stay safe was to always type a URL directly into an address bar rather than search, but using Google to search for John Lewis would have actually been safer!
[s]Hmmm...[/s] 
Nice heads-up ... it appears that one URL is registered in Coventry and one in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China!
I thought it was worth documenting this John Lewis survey scam as I can't see any mentions of it on the internet!
My 91 year old dad went to order a new iPad Pro from John Lewis last week - the bigger the better for his poor eyesight! While chatting with him he mentioned that John Lewis forced him to complete a survey when he first visited their website.
This didn't sound right (even though lots of websites do launch a survey request as soon as you arrive!) so I had a look at his PC history to work out what had happened...
My dad typed wwwjohnlewis.co.uk - missing the 'dot' out after www!
It turns out someone has registered this URL to catch people making this typo!
The site redirects the visitor to visitorsurveyscenter.com where they continue to reference John Lewis (picked up from the referrer) helping to trick the unwary.
View screengrab
The text reads:
Popup:
Congratulations John Lewis Visitor!
You have been selected to participate in an anonymous survey about your experiences with John Lewis.
At the end of the short 30-second survey, you will be offered an exclusive reward (worth at least £50) for providing us with valuable consumer data.
Main page:
Hi, my name is Alice Boyle and we have selected you to participate in a short 30-second survey about John Lewis. Please tell me about your experiences with John Lewis and in exchange for your valuable consumer data, we will offer you a few exclusive regards worth at least £50 or more!
Want to know what the rewards are for this week? Complete this survey to find out!
My dad did think the survey was legit and started to complete it before abandoning it - but only because he wasn't interested. He later returned to the correct John Lewis URL to get his iPad.
It doesn't look as if the websites contained malware and the scam is to get people to pay for the 'free gift'.
I contacted both John Lewis and Nominet(re. the co.uk URL) to see if there was anything that could be done to protect others - but they don't appear to be too interested...
Searching for the visitorsurveyscenter URL it looks like there are many mistyped popular URLs that have been registered to redirect visitors.
In the past the advice to stay safe was to always type a URL directly into an address bar rather than search, but using Google to search for John Lewis would have actually been safer!
NOTE I haven't added links to the dodgy URLs I mention below and don't recommend visiting them unless you have a disposable device!My 91 year old dad went to order a new iPad Pro from John Lewis last week - the bigger the better for his poor eyesight! While chatting with him he mentioned that John Lewis forced him to complete a survey when he first visited their website.
This didn't sound right (even though lots of websites do launch a survey request as soon as you arrive!) so I had a look at his PC history to work out what had happened...
My dad typed wwwjohnlewis.co.uk - missing the 'dot' out after www!
It turns out someone has registered this URL to catch people making this typo!
The site redirects the visitor to visitorsurveyscenter.com where they continue to reference John Lewis (picked up from the referrer) helping to trick the unwary.
View screengrab
The text reads:
Popup:
Congratulations John Lewis Visitor!
You have been selected to participate in an anonymous survey about your experiences with John Lewis.
At the end of the short 30-second survey, you will be offered an exclusive reward (worth at least £50) for providing us with valuable consumer data.
Main page:
Hi, my name is Alice Boyle and we have selected you to participate in a short 30-second survey about John Lewis. Please tell me about your experiences with John Lewis and in exchange for your valuable consumer data, we will offer you a few exclusive regards worth at least £50 or more!
Want to know what the rewards are for this week? Complete this survey to find out!
My dad did think the survey was legit and started to complete it before abandoning it - but only because he wasn't interested. He later returned to the correct John Lewis URL to get his iPad.
It doesn't look as if the websites contained malware and the scam is to get people to pay for the 'free gift'.
I contacted both John Lewis and Nominet(re. the co.uk URL) to see if there was anything that could be done to protect others - but they don't appear to be too interested...
Searching for the visitorsurveyscenter URL it looks like there are many mistyped popular URLs that have been registered to redirect visitors.
In the past the advice to stay safe was to always type a URL directly into an address bar rather than search, but using Google to search for John Lewis would have actually been safer!
[s]Hmmm...[/s]