Fake competition Facebook pages used to STEAL money

Facebook pages like the “Daily Deal” page that ask you to like and share their posts to win prizes are being used to steal money from those that interact with their posts.

We have known for a while that Facebook pages that spring up asking users to “Like and Share” their posts in order to “win” things like shop coupons, RVs, computers and airline tickets are fake. It’s called like-farming – the process of deceiving Facebook users into engaging with posts to help them go viral.

But now these fake competition Facebook pages are taking an even more sinister turn. By tricking the Facebook users who like and share their posts into handing over money to receive their “prize”.

It’s called “advance fee fraud”. Using the promise of a large payout or prize (that doesn’t really exist) to bait victims into handing money over, which the crooks subsequently steal. Typically advance fee fraud is initiated by email, only scammers are now turning to like-farming Facebook pages to hook victims.

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How does the scam work?

Most Facebook users will be familiar with these sorts of posts like the one below that ask you to like and share it to win something. This can range from all sorts of prizes, like RVs, Range Rovers, Computers, airline tickets, vacations and cruises or shop coupons.

When you like and share the post and follow the page, the scammers who operate the Facebook page then get in contact to tell you that you’re a lucky winner. However, to receive your prize, you first need to cough up some money. The scammers may say that the costs are for fees like “shipping costs” or “courier costs” and promise that they will be reimbursed upon arrival of your prize.

Check out this screen shot sent to us by a reader –

The barely legible messages indicate that these scammers originate from non-English speaking countries. Advance fee fraud is popular in Africa, which is why many dub them “Nigerian Prince scams”.

Victims are instructed to send the money through Western Union, which is a service prolifically exploited by scammers since it leaves no paper trail (or at least a paper trail that’s easy to remove.)

This is an important reason why Facebook users should not interact with Facebook posts that claim you can win an expensive prize just for liking and sharing a post. These are like-farming pages and the scammers behind them can orchestrate any number of scams. And you are putting yourself in their crosshairs.

As it typical with Facebook, there is no effective way of reporting these scammers. When you try to report the scam, Facebook unhelpfully suggests you simply just block the page.