Will Facebook users be able to answer a survey and receive a pair of UGG boots for $10? No, that's not true: The senior PR manager for UGG told Lead Stories this was not true. The survey takes users to two websites, neither of whose URLs are affiliated with UGG or their parent company Deckers. On the first website, there are awkwardly typed comments from Facebook users whose usernames can't be clicked on. The second site changes the price of the UGG boots from $10 to $15 and asks for personal information.
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) on November 5, 2024. The caption read:
My friend works at UGG and told that the majority of people don't know that by taking a short survey on the website they can get new boots with a damaged box for only $9.95. Here is the link - https://cutt.ly/store_ugg , it takes just 1 min. They are clearing out the warehouses with last year's collection, so this opportunity happens once a year.I've already received my uggs, I'm attaching a photo.Don't miss out, the offer is limited! Feel free to share this with your friends.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Dec 4 15:39:48 2024 UTC)
The post included multiple pictures of a pair of UGG boots.
Lead Stories contacted UGG, and on December 4, 2024, Matty Magnin, the senior public relations manager for UGG, told Lead Stories:
This claim is not true.
When Lead Stories clicked the link to the survey (archived here), the link went to a website with a URL that is not affiliated with UGG or their parent company Deckers. Evidence of the non-UGG URL is below, highlighted by Lead Stories:
(Source: epiyhv.info screenshot taken on Wed Dec 4 16:14:35 2024 UTC)
UGG has a page on their official website on how to ensure the authenticity of the site consumers are buying from. Reasons to be suspicious include the website's URL being odd, extremely low prices and not finding a phone number on the site.
The claim advertised UGG boots for sale for only $10 when, on average, a pair of UGG boots cost more than $100. There is no other information on the epiyhv.info site; no contact information, no terms and conditions, no privacy policy. Just the button to answer the survey.
After answering the eight survey questions, you are taken to a page to choose a color and size for the supposed $10 shoes. Underneath the selection for color and size are comments from supposed Facebook users who claim to have already received their shoes from the survey. There was no way for Lead Stories to click on the user's names to see if they were real people. "UGG support" was in the comments as well, but we could not click on their account either. Many of the comments seen were written awkwardly. Examples seen below, highlighting by Lead Stories:
(Source: epiyhv.info screenshot taken on Wed Dec 4 18:10:23 2024 UTC)
(Source: epiyhv.info screenshot taken on Wed Dec 4 18:11:52 2024 UTC)
After selecting a color and size, Lead Stories was taken to a second website (archived here) with the URL, "brillrewards.com," another site not affiliated with UGG. There, we were asked to submit personal information to receive the UGG boots. The price of the boots had changed from "$9.95" to "$14.95." Evidence of this is below:
(Source: brillrewards.com screenshot taken on Wed Dec 4 18:18:01 2024)
Lead Stories searched Google for any further information on UGG offering $10 for answering a survey, and did not find anything that could prove the claim was real (archived here).
Lead Stories previously reported that false online promotions use famous brand names, such as Kroger, Aldi and SHEIN, to trick people into handing over their personal information.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks concerning claims about scams can be found here.
