A social media post claiming that McDonalds is celebrating its 70th anniversary and on this occasion they have planned a giveaway for people. The post had asked people to enter their address and win an assured 100 dollars gift card.
However, Fact Crescendo found the claim to be false. This is a kind of spam and McDonalds had clarified that such offers are not authorized by the company.
What’s the Claim?
A social media user wrote, “We are McDonald’s Company. Celebrates Its 70th Anniversary. On this occasion we organized a giveaway. Enter your street name and stay tuned And win a $100 gift card our team will deliver to your state“
Fact Check-
First, we found out whether McDonald’s had recently celebrated their 70th anniversary. According to the information provided in the McDonald’s website, the company launched it’s first hamburger in 1948 in San Bernardino, California. After this the company sold 14 franchises out of which 10 became operational restaurants. This makes the company’s 76th anniversary in 2024 and not 70th. This raised our suspicion on the credibility of the promotion.
The initial words of the Facebook post reads, “We are McDonald’s Company.” We checked the profile of the user and found no post other than this McDonald’s promotion. No other information was also available in the same Facebook account. You can check the account here (Archive). This proves that the promotion of free giveaway did not come from McDonald’s official account.
A relevant keyword search on Google led us to a clarification released by the company on its website. In it McDonald’s said that many promotional posts claiming to give free McDonald’s vouchers and gift cards are circulating. These promotions are scams and may lead or tempt you to share personal details. It has warned people not to respond to any such promotions or surveys.
We also searched for the image used in the post. A Google Reverse Image Search led us to the same image published in a website in 2023. According to the information, the man in the image is David Shawyer standing next to the mayor of Ilminster Leanne Taylor at the opening of the new McDonald’s. David is a franchise owner of McDonalds who operates four restaurants.
Apart from this, we found there are multiple ways scammers have successfully duped people using fake promotions in the name of McDonald’s. In 2021, McDonald’s warned people of one such scam where the scammers claimed that the company is giving 50% discount offers.
According to a report, in one of the recent incidents, some hackers gained access to the McDonald’s Instagram account and circulated a fraudulent message claiming McD is giving away free cryptocurrency. The message had a phishing link which stole valuable personal information and cryptocurrency wallet credentials of many people.
Conclusion-
Fact Crescendo found the claim to be false. McDonald’s is not celebrating its 70th anniversary and not giving away free gifts. The viral message on social media is a scam.
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