Heineken says there’s no free beer, warns of phishing scam

There's no such thing as free beer for Father's Day — at least not from Heineken. The brewing giant confirmed that a contest circulating on WhatsApp, which promises a chance to win one of 5,000 coolers full of green-bottled lager, is a frothy fraud. "This is a scam. Thank you for highlighting it to us. Please don't click on …

[Red Sceptic]

In Victor Borge voice

Reaches the parts other scams cannot reach.

[Version 1.0]

Re: In Victor Borge voice

So free beer is like free sex ... you're going to be paying for it for a long time. You will be telling all your friends, "I am a drinker with phishing problems" - Brendan Behan (icon) updated to today's world.

[Korev]

Re: In Victor Borge voice

Given a choice between being scammed and a case of Heineken, I think I'll take having my bank emptied...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not beer. Just near frozen gnats urine.

[Borg.King]

Making love in a canoe

As I'm stateside, and I attest that there are many other 'beers' here that are much closer to gnat's piss than Heineken.

[TRT]

Re: Making love in a canoe

American beer is like making love in canoe... fucking close to water.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

That's a lot of gnats

[elkster88]

Re: Heineken says there's no free beer, warns of phishing scam

Years ago at a Hewlett Packard training class in Fort Collins, my instructor was a Scot named Angus, who had lived in the Netherlands for some years.

He claimed that the Dutch had a saying:

"Dutch cows drink Grolsch and piss Heineken".

Which reminds me, I'm overdue for a refresher course of craft beer sampling in old Fort Collins.

[Mast1]

Connoisseurs

It always amazes me how many people seem to have tried gnats' urine in order to make the comparison with ${beverage}.

Are there courses you can go on to learn how to extract it and appreciate the subtle variations (without harming the gnat, of course) ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Presumably, the reason the gnats are peeing so much is because they are very cold.

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

There are better beers. There are better lagers. But Heineken is perfectly drinkable.

If it was a choice between that and water, I'd drink the Heineken.

I don't understand the snobbery against it. It's not like it's Fosters, Carlsberg or ( better than those but not by much ) Carling.

[A. Coatsworth]

It is fun to hate on what's popular. C'mon, jump into the bandwagon!

Having said that, I guess people gets quite annoyed with Heineken's advertising: They show themselves a THE premium beer, when in fact it is a perfectly mediocre affair (see also Stella Artois) and that generates the hate.

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

Over the weekend, due to a logistics issue ( through lack of planning, I ran out of supermarket beer ) I had to buy a four pack of Heineken from the local shop to keep myself hydrated.

It was worse than I remember but I can confirm that it is a passable substitute for high quality beer.

[Terry 6]

There needs to be a clear message

You can't trust anything that you see advertised on social media

[Snowy]

Re: There needs to be a clear message

Nice but a more general message is:

You can't trust anything that you see on social media

[veti]

The cleverness of this scam is that it isn't, self-evidently, "too good to be true". A limited amount of free Heineken sounds like an eminently plausible incentive for a big brand to give away.

[Doctor Tarr]

At least Lovejoy's on the case. We'll be OK.

[Potemkine!]

WhatsApp messages possibly the worst Father's Day present in the world

WhatsApp possibly the worst Father's Day present in the world.

[howsmiff]

Glad to hear it isn't true. Whoever set this up obviously doesn't drink the stuff!!!!!

[Securitymoose]

It will only catch lager drinkers anyway

So who really cares? Bring it on.

[knottedhandkerchief]

It was a Russian domain name (. ru) very clear in the message. Clearly as case of deliberately targeting the less IT savvy.

[Mike 137]

Unfortunate for the brewer

It's a pity, but the necessary denial could even backfire on Heineken by making them look 'mean' in Fathers' Day.

Reputation is such a fragile thing.

[Dan 55]

What could be worse than free Heineken?

Probably only free Hershey's chocolate.

[TRT]

Any excuse to go out...

and get phished.

[Captain_Cretin]

Free stuff.

Can us older PC users at least get a free cup holder ?

I used to have the free Coke cup holder, but lost it years ago.

[William Towle]

Re: Free stuff.

> Can us older PC users at least get a free cup holder ?

My older PC has already got one...

[Alan Brown]

Re: Free stuff.

Mine snapped off years ago