Why do Facebook posts ask me to share and type “amen”?

Why do Facebook posts ask you to type amen and share them? Are the authors genuinely asking for divine intervention, are they attention seeking or is it something more sinister?

Sadly, the reality is that the majority of Facebook posts that ask you to type amen on them and share them are engaging in something called like-farming.

Facebook like-farming is the process of exploiting or deceiving Facebook users with the aim of luring them into liking, sharing or commenting on a Facebook post in a bid to get that post to go viral. This in turn helps the page that published the post accumulate followers.

So posts that ask you to type amen for a disabled child would be an example of like-farming, since the post is exploiting Facebook users into interacting with it. Alternatively, another example could ask you to like and share a post to win a “luxury RV”. (We discuss more examples here.)

But why? Why do Facebook like-farmers want their posts to go viral and why do they want to accumulate followers?

The answer depends on what variant of like-farming you stumble across. There are a number of different motivations to publish like-farming posts, and we discuss them here.

Facebook like-farming exists because…

…it can lure Facebook users to marketing websites

Your contact information is worth money. There are lots of companies out there that will pay to get your phone number, email address and even your home address, so they can spam you.

Like-farming pages will often try to lure Facebook users to these marketing websites. For example, a like-farming page may tell you that you can win really expensive prizes as soon as you click a link. That link leads to a marketing website that will pressure you into giving up your personal information.

In most cases, the like-farmers will get paid for all the Facebook users they lure to these marketing websites.

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…it helps launch more serious scams

Like-farming may be just the initial step to more serious online scams that can target those users who engage with such posts.

As Facebook like-farming pages accumulate followers through deception and exploitation, they can then begin posting links to more sinister scams such as phishing scams or websites that attempt to install malware on a user’s device. Alternatively many like-farming pages have been known to contact their followers in a bid to trick them into handing over money.

For example, like-farming pages that publish fake competitions may contact those that follow their pages and claim they won a prize but need to pay for their prize to be delivered. When the victim pays up, the crooks take the money and run.

…Facebook pages with lots of followers are a valuable commodity

Have you ever though what a Facebook page with lots of followers is worth? You may be surprised to learn that people – especially marketing companies – are willing to pay for pages that have a lot of followers. After all, pages with lots of followers can reach lots of followers.

There are a number of websites on the Internet that deal specifically with the trading of Facebook pages. Like-farmers who accumulate enough followers can exploit and deceive people into following their pages so they can hand off their pages to the highest bidder.

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…people enjoy attention seeking

In perhaps the most innocent permutation of like-farming, many Facebook users engage with like-farming simply to get followers.

In a world where status is often defined by the younger generation as how many Instagram followers you have, many people take to social media simply to get as many followers as possible. There is no “end game”. No scams. Just people looking for attention and are willing to exploit others to get it.