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Supermarket gift card texts a scam

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September 1st, 2014


This article is more than 10 years old.

Text messages promising a big payoff are a big con

Consumers throughout the country are receiving text messages telling them they have been sent a multimedia message via an enclosed link.

The second part says something like: “Congratulations! You are today’s BILKA winner. Enter your information quickly to receive your gift card. This offer will expire at 23:59 tonight.”

Excited consumers who click on the link are led to something that looks like Bilka’s website.

‘Too good to be true’ usually is
Supermarket chain owner Dansk Supermarked said that the texts are a fraud and warn people not to fall victim to the swindle.

“We have nothing to do with it,” Mads Hvitved Grand, a spokesperson for Dansk Supermarked, told TV2 News. “People need to avoid these things that seem too good to be true.”

READ MORE: 'Tis the season for internet scammers

Grand said that any competition or offer by Bilka would be found on bilka.dk or the store’s Facebook page and would not require a customer to jump through so many links or enter so much personal information.

Hard to shut down
Stores are often the victims of this type of scam – something that Grand finds frustrating.

“These scams are something that we face often, “he said.

“They are damned irritating and typically come from foreign accounts and servers. We try to track them down, but they keep moving.”

Grand invited those who receive the scam texts to share their experiences on the company’s Facebook page to help warn other customers.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”