Links are spreading virally on Facebook that claim tobacco brand Marlboro are giving away free cartons of cigarettes to celebrate their 100th anniversary.
The links, like the one below, are directing visitors to a webpage that states that in order to claim your free carton, you must first like and share that webpage on your Facebook account, as well as post a link to the webpage in at least 5 Facebook groups of which you are a member.
Marlboro is giving away free carton of Cigarette to celebrate their 100th Aniversary (180 Cartons remaining)
Claim your free Marlboro carton
Upon doing those actions, the visitor is then told to complete a survey to “verify their identity”.
However these surveys are designed to harvest a user’s personal information and target them with more spam. And after completing them, the visitor will then realise that there really is no free cartons of Marlboro on offer here. It was just a trick to lure them into completing these surveys.
The spammers who create the fake webpages and are responsible for these spammy links will get paid every time they fool someone into completing the surveys.
Why is it important not to fall for these scams?
Sponsored Content. Continued below...
These scams are not new. They’ve been around for years, yet people still fall for them or at least help circulate the spammy links, often under the justification of “just in case”.
However doing so will just help increase the frequency of these scams in the future. And by spreading the spammy links on your own Facebook account, you’re only putting your Facebook contacts at risk of falling for the same scam.
Don’t fall for these scams! Don’t click the links, don’t share the links and don’t complete the surveys! For more information on Facebook giveaway scams like this, click here.
