Argos scam warning after Scot ‘bought Dyson hairdryer for £1.78 on Facebook’ | #datingscams | #lovescams

SCOTS shoppers are being warned not to fall for a new Argos scam on social media that sees fraudsters take money from their bank accounts.

The scam appears to show a Dyson hairdryer – usually costing around £300 – being advertised for as little as £1.78 and asks Facebook users to set up a subscription before taking a larger sum of money from their banks.

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The fraudsters are appearing to share the scam on fake social media pages in an attempt to entice online shoppers looking for a bargain buy.

This particular scam shows a fake Argos Facebook page advertising a Dyson Supersonic hairdryer for just £1.78 instead of the retail price of £299.99.

In the post, it claims that the hairdryers are selling at such a great price because Argos “has broken it’s contract with Dyson”.

Once it receives bank details, it then takes more money out at a later date for something completely unrelated.

One Scot shared a warning to others not to buy into the hoax after one of her friends fell for the deal.

Posting on Facebook, they said: “Just to warn you!!!

“Don’t ever pay for this or Amazon or anything that says sale like this.

“One of my friends did it and they took £1.78 subscription and in a few days took £50.

“When we called bank, bank has no idea, they gave us some number to call, eventually we got it to that company and was dating site in France.

“We said we will sue them if they don’t give money back, they agreed to to give half back (means admitting they are dodgi), crazyyy.

“One girl just msg me that she warned others too and they blocked us from commenting BE CAREFUL.”

Facebook users flocked to the comments to tag their friends and share the news about the scam.

One person wrote: “If it seems too good to be true then it will be too good to be true.”

Another said: “£1.78! At no time anywhere would his happen!”

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A third posted: “One girl said she just subscribed… crazy”.

A spokesperson for Argos said: “This is not a genuine deal or Argos page.

“Customers should always be mindful of phishing scams.”

A spokesperson for Argos said: “This is not a genuine deal or Argos page.
“Customers should always be mindful of phishing scams.”

The company that owns platforms including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, rebranded as Meta, has confirmed they are investigating the ads and will remove those that violate their policies.

A Meta spokesperson said: “We dedicate significant resources to tackling scams and have donated £3 million to Citizens Advice to deliver a UK Scam Action Programme to raise awareness and help victims.

“We also continue to invest in new technologies and methods to protect people on our service.

“Major brands, such as Argos, are verified on Facebook.

“We’d recommend being wary of giving personal details to pages claiming to be major corporations without a blue tick by their name.”

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Action Fraud has been contacted for comment.

It’s not the first time this scam has made the rounds on social media lately.

Two months ago another Facebook post claimed that shoppers could buy the same hairdryer from Currys for £1.78.

Pictures on the post showed a woman holding what looks like a receipt for the hairdryer with the price on it and was captioned: “Currys limited sale, buy now Dyson Supersonic hairdryer for just £ 1.78” with a link beneath it.

But Currys confirmed it was a hoax on social media after people got in touch with them with similar posts on Twitter.

In a Tweet, the retailer explained that it was “not a real offer from currys and is a scam post going around”. 

In another tweet, they said: “We can confirm we’re not affiliated with this page.

“Feel free to report it to Facebook, we’ll do the same.” 

The link on the Facebook post took shoppers to a page that claimed they had been selected to participate in a Dyson Supersonic and Currys promotion.

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