Samsung S4 Giveaway Scams Flood Facebook

Facebook users should be on the lookout for a barrage of spam giveaways asserting to offer the highly anticpiated Samsung Galaxy S4.

A couple of weeks ago we reported on the rising giveaway scams hitting Facebook purporting to give away freebies for those that like and share a Page or Post and then sign up for surveys.

And today several giveaway scams, this time purporting to give away the Samsung Galaxy S4, have accumulated a startlingly large number of shares and likes in only a matter of hours. (update: find out how these fake Pages garner so many Likes and Shares so quickly in our later post.)

It seems scammers have been taking advantage of the latest high profile smartphone that is due to be released on March 14th. Many gadget enthusiasts would love to be some of the first people to get their hands on the phone and scammers are exploiting this by setting up fake giveaway launches set to coincide with the much anticipated launch date.

A typical fake giveaway Page asserting to offer Samsung products.

These fake pages and posts that circulate Facebook are designed to harvest the personal information of victims. Those who fall for the scam are asked to like a Page or share a post, exposing the scam to all of their friends. They are then directed to external websites that ask you to complete surveys and questionnaires. In many cases the victim is then told to type something into the comments box of a post or onto the Page, such as “done” or “I want it”.

A typical post made by a fake Page. The post directs users to share the posts, like the Page, comment “I love Galaxy” and then visit an external website to complete a survey.

The scammers who set up the fake Samsung giveaway posts and Pages get paid every time they trick a person into completing these surveys.

After a victim completes a survey and gives away much of their personal information they are then vulnerable to all sorts of spam offers and even SMS subscription plans which can cost them a weekly subscription charge billed to their phone.

And of course there is no free Samsung Galaxy S4 on offer.

These giveaway scams have been popular on Facebook for years yet Facebook users persistently fall for them in their thousands.

Despite reporting these Pages, Facebook have not removed them. Often these pages can stay up for weeks if not months before they are removed by Facebook or abandoned by the scammers.

Do you know people who constantly fall for these scams? Who do you think it most to blame – Facebook for allowing spam to flood their network or the users for falling for such old scams. Let us know.

Thanks to the Black Knight for the heads up