Fraud Warning - NOTHING IS FREE!!!

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Have you been a victim of this "free tickets" scam? We all like free stuff and when a "coupon" appears in our email or on Facebook offering free stuff, we are all tempted to take advantage of the offer, As in this illustrated example, information is scarce, so you click on the coupon and it tells you that YOU ARE A WINNER and there are only a limited number left (in this example, on 144 left). 

HARD CODING:

Oddly enough if you go back to the website after completing the survey, there are still 144 tickets left. After analyzing the source code, I can confirm that the message "144 tickets left" is HARD CODED and will never change. Here are some other hard coded data:

Comments are HARD CODED and fake:

• Eunice Garza: wow great !
• Bryan Odum: It was busy at Cineplex today. It seems like many people have won these tickets.
• Bruno Pinho: Great entertainment.
• Jason Caesar: Yeeess, i will be there with my friend #Juliette.
• John Brooks: Thank you, Cineplex.
• Wallace Porter: Aah my family loves Cineplex.
• Deleon Sandra: My Husbands favourite place.
• Brenda Vaughn: thank you Cineplex.
• Sabrina White: Who would have thought I could win free tickets from cineworld. (I thought they were from Cineplex?)

Note that I copied all these comments from the SOURCE CODE, they were never entered on the website as real comments.

What should make you suspicious this offer is fake?

First off, the coupon itself:

1. Note that this is a CINEPLEX coupon, which is a CANADIAN COMPANY ONLY, yet the small text says that tickets are valid in AMC THEATERS ONLY IN THE USA.
2. There are a few AMC Theaters in Canada, but CINEPLEX is the much larger chain and has no connection to AMC. 
3. The coupon has no expiry date. All legitimate coupons ALWAYS HAVE AN EXPIRY DATE.
4. Note the phrase "to celebrate 30th anniversary." According the Wikipedia, Cineplex was founded in 1999, 17 years ago. It would only be celebrating it's 30th anniversary in 2029.

The website:

1. A quick check of the WHOIS Domain Registration database shows that the website that this coupon links you (winndixiecard.com) to is registered in Panama, not Canada.
2. There is only the "survey" at this website, no HOME page, ABOUT page, etc., although at the top of the page there appear to be links to other pages.
3. The links at the top of the page "Contact - Free Tickets - Careers" are fake. None of them are hyperlinks that open other webpages. They're just added to make you think there is a complete website there, when there isn't.

Here is what the first webpage looks like:

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Why would any company ask such mundane questions that provide them with virtually no useful information - and give away 5 free tickets to boot which will be a serious financial drain on the company. Note that if you never receive the tickets, there is no contact information for you to use to contact the provider.

So what just happened?

1. You clicked on the link and answered the questionnaire, then clicked submit. 
2. As a result, the survey collected your answers in a database in Panama, along with other information that would have been automatically embedded in your reply like your email address, your Facebook address or your messenger address.
3. While you can't be certain how this information will be used, you may suddenly start receiving a lot of unsolicited emails, Facebook requests or messages, and these will be trying to entice you with more fraudulent offers.

What about Malware or Viruses?

This scam has been used successfully with theater chains in the UK and USA. In those particular cases, the survey part did not upload malware (like viruses) to the user's computer, although that is still possible depending on the code used. However, malware WAS UPLOADED when the user clicked on a link to redeem the coupon, which was sent to the user shortly after completing the survey.

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK TO REDEEM ANY COUPON FOR FREE MOVIE TICKETS FROM THIS OFFER.

Finally, a warning from Cineplex's own CONTACT US webpage:

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For future reference, nobody on the Internet gives anybody something for nothing. There are no free airline tickets, luxury cruises, iPhones, laptops, or free movie tickets, unless you enter a legitimate contest offering these as prizes. Companies do not give out massive freebies without a lot of publicity ON THEIR OWN WEBSITES. Be skeptical. Read all offers carefully and, if in doubt, just say NO CLICKING - NO DEAL.