Hy-Vee Issues Warning About Social Media Scam

Hy-Vee Inc. issued a warning to customers about a fraudulent grocery giveaway post circulating on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.

The fraudulent post states that people will receive $150 worth of groceries for their birthday, which is not true because it is not affiliated with or supported by Hy-Vee. Accordingly, the regional retailer is urging customers to not engage with the scam website or provide personal information.

“We want our customers to know this giveaway is in no way affiliated with our company," said Tara Deering-Hansen, group VP of communications at Hy-Vee. "We also want to educate them on the dangers posed by sharing and clicking on the post."

Deering-Hansen said related posts have been increasingly surfacing in recent weeks which use the likeness of other major retailers, and suggests that customers beware of any offers that sound too good to be true, have unaffiliated URLs and contain grammatical errors or misspellings.

Hy-Vee officials are diligently working to get the website taken down. In the meantime, it's recommended that customers not share the post and simply delete it. Hy-Vee further recommends that anyone who accidentally clicked the scam link scan their computer for viruses and malware and change any password information.

The employee-owned Hy-Vee operates 240 stores across eight Midwestern states.