Police have warned residents to be alert to an Easter egg scam circulating.

Dorset Police's Cyber Crime Unit have posted to warn people about the scam, calling it a "fairly convincing Cadbury themed phish".

A spokesperson said: "It's clearly designed to mirror the current Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt campaign, with the chance to win one of 5000 possible free gifts.

"The only thing more wrong than this is the act of biting the top off of a Creme Egg to lick the filling out.

"First thing to pay attention to is that short URL. There's a good reason why we don't like short URLs in the Cyber Crime Unit.

"They make it much harder to tell where you're actually heading. Also, that .ru domain. There's no good reason for Cadbury to have a Russian address.

"Then there's the website itself. ⚠️DON'T CLICK THE LINK⚠️. Our Cyber Protect Officer has done it for you.

"The site looks fairly convincing, however the only buttons that actually work are the ones to answer the questions. The search icon and the three little lines do nothing at all."

They added: "Once you answer those question, you're taken to a little game where you have to "find your prize". Conveniently, your first and second tries won't be successful, but you'll "win" on your third go! At that point, to claim your "prize", you'll be asked to hand over all sorts of personal information. That's where the scam comes in!

"Far too high a price to pay for some free chocolate. Especially when Creme Eggs are two for a quid."

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