Ikea France warns of fake €500 discount offer texts

According to reports, numerous people have received messages recently - in French (see below) - that appear to offer a discount at Ikea, or its online store, Ikea.com, allegedly in celebration of the brand’s 75th birthday.

Users are asked to click on a link, where they must then enter their details - including bank details - to access the €500, which they are then told can be spent at Ikea on whatever they choose.

In order to finally access the cash, users are directed to share the offer with their contacts, too.

Beware: this is a con.

Instead of the real Ikea.com site, users are directed to a fake version, with fraudsters collecting the details and raiding bank accounts instead. The extra step of sending the offer to your contact book simply allows the criminals to con even more people.

Ikea is warning people that its logo - respected and well-liked - is often used in fraudulent email, telephone or text campaigns.

It advises that instead of clicking on any links or offers, users should go to the official Ikea.com website themselves, away from the offer, and double check that any discounts are legitimate, before continuing.

Fraudulent messages are often badly spelled, with missing capital letters, odd symbols, web addresses that are not quite right, or strange grammar, the company added.

Any messages that you suspect of being fraudulent should be ignored and deleted, and be reported to the French office of competition, consumption and repression of fraud, the DGCCRF (Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes).

Ikea is a popular store in France, with a new CEO having taken the reins in September, promising a new, fresh approach, and two new stores in France by 2019.

France is the company’s third largest market worldwide (worth €2.63billion), and there are 33 shops across the Hexagon.