There are lots of content you really shouldn’t be sharing on social media, largely because it’s just pure nonsense. But with each year, certain types of posts become more prolific.
We see lots of hoaxes being passed from user to user via social media every year. And with each year, we compile our top five based on their popularity. As such, we have our top five Facebook posts you should not be sharing in 2019.
This year we’ve seen a startling rise in the number of fake Facebook giveaways that claim a celebrity is giving away money to anyone who shares and comments on a Facebook post. Crooks often impersonate celebrities such as Ellen, Dwayne Johnson and Tyler Perry by creating fake pages under their names, and publishing posts claiming that they’re giving away money.
However the pages are fake, and are usually a method for crooks to lure Facebook users to malicious or spammy websites, or to lure those users into handing over sensitive information over social media.
Remember that celebrity posts claiming to give away money for engaging on a post are more than likely going to be scams, and always ensure that you’re on the officially verified (blue ticked) pages of celebrities before engaging with a post.
Even in 2019, fake Facebook hacker requests don’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon, with a number of variants going viral this year. For example messages warning readers not to accept names such as Andrea Wilson and Fabrizio Brambilla both went viral this year.
Such warnings all make the same basic claims. Do not accept a particular person to your social media account with a particular name because they are a hacker. Doing so will give them automatic access to your social media accounts and/or device. And copy and paste the same message to warn your friends.
In most cases the warnings are identical with only the names of the alleged hacker altered. While we don’t recommend adding strangers to your social media accounts, we also don’t recommend spreading baseless and scaremongering warnings either.
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Fake competitions on Facebook have been around for years. But in 2019 we saw a big surge in fake competitions pretending to be from large supermarket or food chain brands purporting to offer free coupons or gift cards to Facebook users who share, comment and like Facebook posts.
For example – Pizza Hut, Dominos, Tesco and Dunkin’ Donuts have all had fake accounts in their names spread by offering free vouchers for free products spread through Facebook.
Remember to always ensure you’re on the genuine page or a brand before engaging with a post. Make sure you’re on the official blue ticked page. You can use Facebook’s Page Transparency tool to see when a page was created.
Believe it or not, we’re still seeing posts demanding users post legal sounding notices to their timelines or face having their information stolen or used without their consent. Again this isn’t new to 2019, but they’re proving to be extremely popular this year, and have even recently spread to Instagram.
Such notices claim that by posting a legal notice, often quoting totally irrelevant legal legislation such as the Rome Statute of the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) you can stop Facebook or other entities from using your information. Many such messages claim there is an immediate deadline to post the notice.
It’s all nonsense, and what entities can do with your information is decided either by the relevant laws of the country you live in, or by the terms and conditions of the site you agreed to when you signed up for an account. Neither can be superseded ad hoc by posting legalese on your social media account.
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2019 has been a popular year for sharing fake photos of storms, or photos purporting to show the aftermath of storms. This can include the notorious “shark on the freeway” photos, photos claiming to show looters in the aftermath of storms (usually old photos from previous incidents) or fake photos of approaching storms (usually CGI.)
Inevitably such hoaxes become popular during “hurricane season” across North America, and this year we’ve seen fake photos claiming to show dolphins being plucked from the ocean by storm wins, fake looter photos, fake photos of Hurricane Dorian approaching Florida and yes, more fake shark photos.
Always try and verify that photos you share showing storms of their aftermath are legitimate before hitting the share button.