Do you “like” or “share” pictures or posts when you don’t know where they come from?
Chances are you are being scammed.
Do you “like” a Facebook post because it stirred up a reaction?
Do you “share” posts or pictures that may sound to good to be true?
Do you “like” or “share” posts from someone you don’t know just because they are trying to get the word out?
Chances are you are being scammed and you may not even know it.
Seems there is a growing trend on social media where people think something is true when a little research shows it’s not.
So why is this a scam?
When you like or share the picture, their intent is that you will visit their Facebook page, like the page, which will allow them to post additional comments on your wall.
When you “like” or “share” something, the people that own that page can look at your profile and depending on your security settings, can access your information – including all your friends and family. See our last post “Security and Privacy Settings on Facebook Are Your Responsibility” to learn more about this.
They are enticing you to take other actions (including visiting web sites that appear to be legitimate Facebook pages), building up interaction with their page, allowing them to become more visible on Facebook and ultimately scam more people.
The end game for these spammers is to gain enough likes and interaction on Facebook so they can sell the page off to someone else for big money – someone who is interested in having an instant audience where they can continue to scam more and more people.
A couple examples we’ve seen just over the past month:
I can’t win new iPhones, iPads, iPods or Macbooks just by following a few simple steps?
How insensitive are you where you don’t hate cancer, respect soldiers or like kids?
You don’t want your Facebook friends to think you are evil, that’s why everyone “likes” pictures and posts from people they don’t know, so they don’t come off as being heartless.
Seen this one yet? Don’t worry, if you haven’t, you will soon, it’s the latest one going around:
“This is my sister Mallory. She has Down syndrome and doesn’t think she’s beautiful. Please like this photo so I can show her later that she truly is beautiful.”
Want to meet the real Mallory? She is the daughter of Terri Johnson, the author of the blog site “Roots of Healthy Living“.
How about boycotting Starbuck’s because they don’t support the war? False.
Ok, but the guy holding the picture of the winning lottery ticket who says he will give $1 million to a random person who “likes” and “shares” his picture, picture was actually photo shopped – the guy never won the lottery.
Bill Gates gives $5,000 to Facebook users who click and share a link?
Burger King gives away free vouchers?
Southwest Airlines is giving away tickets? How about JetBlue?
Free Tom’s shoes? Gift cards to Costco, Cheesecake Factory?
No, Nope, Nada, Not Gonna Happen, No, No, No.
Every time you “like” and “share” these posts, you are opening yourself up to be scammed, to have your personal Facebook information compromised and to have your information sold off to other scammers out there who are willing to pay BIG BUCKS for your information.
Here are a few posts we’ve uncovered in the past couple weeks that ALL fit into this category:
PS – Morgan Freeman is NOT dead and if you click “like” or “share” a Facebook picture, the picture doesn’t change!
So how to know if this stuff is real or a hoax?
Pretty simple, use common sense. Do you know the person or page that the post originated from – NOT YOUR FRIEND WHO REPOSTED? If not, leave it alone!
A couple great resources to check out are Snopes, Hoaxslayer and a Facebook specific page Facecrooks are all great resources to find out if something you are suspicious about is real or not.
Let’s also be clear that if you follow a person or a page and they post something relevant to themselves or their business, there is nothing wrong with liking or sharing those posts – this is beneficial to the legitimate businesses out there want truly want to stay connected to you!
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