I kept seeing posts about a Costco Kirkland Signature grill giveaway, and every time it showed up, the offer seemed to get a little more ridiculous. A supposedly expensive gas grill was being offered to Costco customers for almost nothing, with the promotion claiming that all you had to do was answer a few questions and pay a small delivery fee to receive your prize.
At first, I ignored it because the internet is full of fake giveaways, and I didn’t particularly feel the need to investigate every suspicious Costco post that crossed my screen. But after seeing the same basic promotion repeatedly, I finally got curious. Was Costco actually giving away a Kirkland Signature grill, or was there something else going on behind that ridiculously cheap offer?
So I looked it up. There was, in fact, something else going on.
The promotion isn’t an official Costco giveaway at all. It’s a scam designed to make you believe you’ve won a valuable Kirkland Signature grill before getting your payment information through the door. And that supposedly harmless $11.95 delivery fee can reportedly lead to recurring charges totalling $149.87 every month.
That definitely got my attention, so let’s take a closer look at what this giveaway is actually doing.
What Is the Costco Kirkland Grill Giveaway?
The promotion presents itself as a Costco customer loyalty or appreciation offer, with the recipient supposedly being selected to receive a Kirkland Signature six-burner gas grill. You’re asked to complete a short survey, after which the website informs you that you’ve been selected for the prize.
The offer is made to sound almost absurdly easy. You don’t have to purchase anything, win a competition or prove that you’re some kind of VIP Costco member. You simply answer a few questions, claim your grill and pay approximately $11.95 for delivery.
And honestly, that’s exactly why it caught my attention. Costco selling a grill? Completely normal. Kirkland Signature making a grill? Also normal.
Costco running some kind of customer promotion? Entirely possible. But a valuable gas grill being handed out for $11.95 after a few survey questions? That deserved a closer look.
Is Costco Actually Giving Away the Grill?
No. The promotion is not an official Costco giveaway, despite using Costco and Kirkland Signature branding to make it appear that way.
Costco maintains an official Currently Known Scams page where it warns customers about fraudulent websites, surveys, social media posts, advertisements and giveaways that misuse the company’s name. Costco specifically states that these offers are not from Costco Wholesale and advises consumers not to follow suspicious links or provide personal information.
Costco has also warned about fake promotions in which consumers are told they’ve won a prize after completing a survey and are then asked to provide personal information to receive it.
So the fact that the promotion looks like something Costco could plausibly do doesn’t make it legitimate.
In fact, that’s what makes the scam work so well.
The Grill Itself Is Legitimate
One thing I don’t want to imply is that the grill is completely fictional.
Kirkland Signature is Costco’s own brand, and Costco genuinely sells Kirkland Signature grills and other outdoor cooking equipment. That makes the giveaway much more believable because the scammers aren’t trying to convince you that Costco has suddenly invented some mysterious product you’ve never heard of.
They’re using a real product and attaching a fake promotion to it. You can search for the grill, find it on Costco’s website and see that it really exists. You might then assume the giveaway must be legitimate because you’ve independently confirmed that the product is real.
But the existence of the product doesn’t confirm the existence of the giveaway.
How the Giveaway Hooks You
Once you click through to the promotion, you’re presented with what looks like a simple customer survey.
The questions aren’t particularly alarming. They may ask about your Costco shopping habits, how often you shop there or how satisfied you are with the company.
And that’s intentional. If the first thing the website did was ask for your credit card number, most people would immediately leave. A harmless-looking survey gives the process a much more legitimate appearance and gets you comfortable interacting with the page.
After answering the questions, you’re told that you’ve been selected for the grill. That outcome is hardly surprising because the survey isn’t really determining whether you’re eligible for anything.
It’s moving you further down the funnel.
Then Comes the $11.95 “Shipping Fee”
This is where the promotion becomes much more interesting. You’ve supposedly just won a valuable Kirkland Signature grill, so being asked to pay a small amount for delivery doesn’t seem completely unreasonable.
After all, the scammers aren’t saying:
“Pay us $800 for this grill.”
They’re saying:
“The grill is free. Just cover the $11.95 shipping.”
That’s a much easier proposition to accept.
Unfortunately, according to investigations into the campaign, that small payment is not the end of the transaction. The terms associated with the offer reportedly authorise two recurring monthly charges of $73.54 and $76.33, which together come to $149.87 every month.
Suddenly, the $11.95 doesn’t look quite so innocent.
The $149.87 Monthly Charge Is the Real Problem
This is the part that convinced me that we weren’t simply dealing with a questionable giveaway. A person who believes they’re paying $11.95 to have a free grill delivered could end up agreeing to recurring charges that total nearly $150 every month.
And the way the offer is presented matters enormously. The $11.95 is the number you’re encouraged to notice because it makes the deal feel harmless. The much larger recurring charges are reportedly buried in the terms and conditions, where someone rushing to claim a supposedly limited-time prize may not notice them.
That’s a classic subscription trap. The victim isn’t necessarily thinking, “I want to sign up for a $149.87 monthly service.”
They’re thinking, “I’m paying $11.95 to get the grill I just won.”
Those are two very different transactions.
Why the Costco Branding Matters
Once I looked at the mechanics of the offer, the reason for all the Costco branding became pretty obvious.
The scammers don’t need you to trust some random company you’ve never heard of. They simply borrow the credibility Costco has already built.
The Costco logo makes the promotion familiar. The Kirkland Signature name makes the grill believable. The survey makes the interaction feel official, and the small shipping fee gives the payment a reasonable-sounding explanation.
It’s a carefully constructed sequence in which every individual part is just believable enough to keep you moving forward.
Costco has acknowledged that this kind of impersonation is a recurring problem and warns customers about fraudulent websites, advertisements, surveys, giveaways and social media promotions using its name.
The Website Is Another Huge Red Flag
Another thing that stood out when looking into the promotion was where the links actually lead.
Reported versions of the scam have used unrelated domains such as appointment.de.com, axletreepleasingness.shop and fastmarketzonefresh.com, rather than Costco’s official website.
That should immediately make you suspicious. It doesn’t matter how convincing the page looks or how prominently the Costco logo appears. If you’re supposedly claiming a Costco prize but the website belongs to an unrelated domain, you’re not dealing with Costco’s website.
This is why checking the actual URL is so much more useful than judging whether a page looks professional.
And Then There’s the Urgency
The promotion may also use a countdown or similar message suggesting that your prize will disappear if you don’t complete the process quickly.
That’s another tactic I always pay attention to with these offers because urgency is there for one reason: to prevent you from thinking too much.
If you close the page and spend five minutes searching for the promotion independently, you might discover that Costco never announced it.
If you stay on the page because you’re afraid the timer is going to run out, the scammer has accomplished exactly what they wanted.
A genuine promotion shouldn’t require you to choose between claiming your prize immediately and having enough time to verify that the company is actually offering it.
Costco Has Warned About This Type of Scam
What’s particularly interesting is that Costco doesn’t just generally tell customers to “be careful online.”
The company specifically warns about fraudulent surveys, giveaways, advertisements and social media posts that use Costco’s name. It also warns about fake promotions claiming that consumers have won prizes and then requesting personal information.
That doesn’t mean every suspicious Costco giveaway you encounter is necessarily the same campaign, but it does confirm that this is a known form of Costco impersonation.
And in this particular case, the hidden recurring charges make the situation considerably more serious than a simple fake Facebook giveaway.
What If You Already Paid the $11.95?
If you entered your card information and paid the supposed shipping fee, don’t assume that the $11.95 is the only transaction you need to worry about.
Monitor your card statements closely for recurring charges, particularly because the reported terms associated with this campaign involve two separate monthly charges totalling $149.87.
Contact your card issuer if you see unauthorised charges and explain that your card information was submitted through a deceptive giveaway promotion. Depending on the circumstances, you may need to dispute the transactions and replace the card to prevent additional charges.
It’s also worth keeping screenshots of the promotion, payment page, terms and confirmation emails because those records can be useful when reporting or disputing fraudulent charges.
What If You Only Clicked the Giveaway?
If you clicked the promotion but didn’t provide payment information, that’s considerably less concerning.
Close the page and don’t go back to it. If you entered an email address or other personal information, however, be prepared for the possibility of follow-up spam or phishing attempts. The scammers may now know that your address is active and that you’re responsive to certain types of promotions.
And if you downloaded anything from the website, that’s a separate issue that deserves additional attention.
How to Check a Real Costco Giveaway
After looking into this one, the safest rule seems pretty straightforward: don’t verify the promotion through the promotion itself.
If you receive an email or see a social-media post claiming Costco is giving away a grill, don’t click its link and then ask the website whether it’s legitimate. Instead, open Costco’s official website independently and search for the promotion there.
You can also contact Costco through its official customer service channels if you’re unsure. If a supposedly major Costco giveaway exists only in an email, Facebook post or random website and cannot be independently confirmed through Costco, that’s a very good reason to walk away.
Conclusion
I initially thought the Costco Kirkland grill giveaway was probably just another ridiculous internet promotion that wasn’t worth my time. I kept seeing it, though, and eventually decided to look into it because the offer was simply too good to make sense.
It turns out my scepticism was justified.
The grill itself is real, the Kirkland Signature branding is real, and Costco genuinely sells grills. The giveaway, however, is not a legitimate Costco promotion. Instead, the campaign uses those genuine elements to make a fake survey and prize claim appear credible before asking victims to pay a small shipping fee.
The most concerning part is what can happen after that seemingly harmless $11.95 payment. The reported terms associated with the promotion authorise recurring charges of $73.54 and $76.33 per month, bringing the total to $149.87 every month.
That’s why I wouldn’t describe this as simply a “fake giveaway.” The giveaway is the bait; the recurring billing is where the scam becomes profitable.
So if you’ve been seeing the Costco grill promotion everywhere and wondering whether you should finally claim your “free” Kirkland grill, save yourself the trouble.
I looked it up so you don’t have to. The grill isn’t free. Your card is the prize.
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