If you were recently invited to participate in a brief survey from Dick’s Sporting Goods, in exchange for a free Yeti cooler, you are not alone.
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The emails are a scam, so don’t click on them. If you do click, then definitely don’t provide your credit card information to ship the phantom prize. If you already did pay the fee, then get your card replaced right away. And we’re sorry to inform you that a $325 cooler will not be heading your way.
Email scams are nothing new, but the Yeti cooler caper is notable for how many people it actually reached, in an era when email providers catch nearly all spam and usually warn users about emails from suspicious accounts. This one eluded spam filters and was shown to users with no warning.
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It’s impossible to gauge the scam’s true scope, but references to spammy Yeti cooler promotions abound on Twitter, first appearing around September. Dick’s Sporting Goods even warns customers about the scam on its website.
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The unlikely success of the scam appears to be the result of a breakthrough by spammers in their cat-and-mouse game with email providers, coming at a time when Gmail appears to have intentionally let its guard down. Google, which operates Gmail, the world’s largest email provider, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
