Messages are spreading that you can get a free lifetime pass at fast food restaurant McDonalds providing you click a link and share a webpage on your Facebook timeline.
The links assert that McDonalds are providing the free passes to those who share a link and post the link of a webpage into at least 5 Facebook groups, all for its 61st anniversary. The links are spreading at the same time as near identical scams also spread but targeting KFC and Wendy’s outlets instead.
An example of a link can be seen below –
McDonald’s is Giving-away Free Lifetime Pass on it’s 61st Anniversary (limited time offer)
Get Yours now & Enjoy Free McDonald’s for lifetime
Upon a social media user seeing and clicking on the link, they are taken to a webpage that implores them to share it on their timeline and post the link to the group on Facebook groups of which they are a member. This helps the scam spread. Users are then asked to fill out surveys to complete the offer and get their passes.
Of course just as with the KFC and Wendy’s examples, this is just another survey scam designed purely to lure Facebook users into filling out spammy surveys which harvest personal information and target people with more spam. There are no lifetime passes on offer and once the target discovers this it will be too late.
Of course Facebook users are doing this on the “just in case” its true reasoning, which is highly not recommended since it leave them and their Facebook friends vulnerable to scams and identity theft, as well as the Facebook users who are members of the Facebook groups they post the link onto.
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Spammers are exploiting Facebook and its user’s gullibility, and they are notorious for baiting Facebook users with offers that are not real, just to get them to fill out spammy surveys and to sign up for “rewards programs”. The spammers get paid for every person they lure into signing up for these.
Our standard advice is applicable here when it comes to spammy Facebook links purporting to offer freebies. Don’t click on suspicious links. Don’t share webpages on your timeline to enter competitions or giveaways since this is against Facebook’s terms of service. Don’t share webpages to Facebook groups to enter competitions of giveaways since this is also against Facebook’s terms of service and don’t complete spammy surveys to enter competitions or surveys.
If you ignore all of those tips you’re going to find yourself the target for spam and possibly identity theft and you would have invited all of your friends to fall victim to the scam too.
Click here for more information on spammy Facebook giveaways and competitions here.
