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Friends don’t let friends get scammed!

Oct 3, 2016

Beware Facebook Give-A-Way Sweepstakes Scams!

You may have noticed in your daily Facebook news-feed more and more posts that offer a FANTASTIC free give away just by clicking Like, Sharing or Commenting on the post…

Before you do, STOP and THINK! If it sounds to good to be true, it very probably is too good to be true. In fact, in almost every case it’s a blatant lie.

You may ask yourself, “What harm can it do do if I just like comment and share the page. I might just win.”

• At best, the post is designed to simply collect likes and shares for a fake business page.Later, the page name can be changed and sold to a business who want a page with an instant large audience for them to push their products or services.

• At worst, these Free-Give-Away posts will direct you to a sign up page and ask for personal information such as name, address, phone number, social security number etc.

Of course, most of us will not fall for that trap and “smell a rat” right there. However, a due to the sheer number of these posts a surprising number of people do fall for these types of scams, and end up parting with money or worse, have their IDENTITY stolen!

A possible scenario for posts like similar to the one shown here for “Free First Class airline tickets”:  Wow it’s a dream come true! It’s your chance to take a first class trip anywhere in the world! You excitedly share and like the post, comment as requested then go on to Like the page it links to. No harm done so far right?

A few days later you get a message notifying that you are the lucky winner, and to please submit your contact details so that they can process your prize package. You may even get a call from a very excited “representative” letting you all about the prize you’ve won and how fantastic it will be for you and your family.

The only thing you’ll need to do before they can issue the prize is to pay the taxes on the winnings. They’ll happily wait while you transfer the money via Western Union. Once they confirm they have received the money they excitedly tell you that the prize is on its way. However, you soon find it… there is no prize and your money and possibly your identity have been stolen.

So if you see one of these FAKE Sweepstakes in your Facebook News-feed:

• Do Not Share it!
• Do Not Like it!
• Do Not Comment on it!

Here is another example of a Facebook scam for a free Lexus!
If you are still in doubt, simply do a quick Google search on the post to verify it’s definitely a SCAM!  Facebook provides you with a little down arrow (see image to right) in the top left of the post so you can report it as a Scam.

Don’t fall victim to these scams – tell your friends.

-By Bernie Timms