The Takealot Mother's Day what-what scam

I was not going to say anything but the burden has been so heavy on my heart since last week that I cannot be silent any longer. Two Sundays ago, I had an influx of messages from several of my Whatsapp contacts inviting me to click on a very shady looking web link. I did not cooperate in that regard but I am told this link which went viral, was exactly what I warned it was - a scam! Please may my beloved friends who entertained the scam, help me to understand a few things 😊

I come in peace when I ask, "where did you all get truck loads of guts to click on a link as dodgy (shady doesn't quite cut it)  as www.wp20.ru ? I need some of that bravado! 🤔😀

On second thoughts, you do not have to answer that one. Let's settle it by saying that it's me who is not brave or adventurous enough! However, do help me to understand this other question.

 Once you had clicked on that heinous link (more suitable adjectival descriptions now come to mind), and you saw that takealot.com was said to be running a promotion, did you not remember that the company is named by its URL, takealot.com ?! Shouldn't this have automatically alerted you that if the web page that you were on was not takealot.com then you were not on Takealot but on a fake page and therefore on dangerous territory? 😳

Well that question above might also be difficult to answer, so let's leave it as well. Let me ask something less complicated. Have you ever heard of a big and reputable company running a marketing campaign that is not found on their official website and is not found on radio or television, but only exists on forwarded Whatsapp messages? Is it logical that they would need one to forward a link to several contacts as a condition to qualify for a gift? Next time, mark that as an obvious red flag that someone wants your cellphone number and the numbers of your contacts for the purpose of selling that information to marketing people or else for hacking and/or pishing purposes! 

Fine, let me drop those complicated questions too. Here are two simple ones. Do you know that there is no such thing as a "free lunch," and that such offers of "free" gifts must be avoided? If you do not know,  you may read my other post on Facebook on this same issue. 

Ah well it seems there is going to be a challenge in getting the most basic responses, so let's scrap the whole idea of questions. I will just leave you with a tip: If another message is sent with a similar looking URL, or claiming that you stand to win freebies, walk away. Actually, don't walk but run! Run for dear life as fast as your legs can carry you!