Toyota Frontrunner 2016 Giveaway scam spread on Facebook

The latest giveaway scam to spread across Facebook purports to offer a Toyota Fortuner for those that like and share a post, as well as like a page.

In fact the post claims that two lucky winners will be chosen at random from those that participate.

The post can be seen below.

For the FIRST time in facebook history we are giving away Toyota Fortuner 2016 to two winners that we will select on June 20 completely at random.
Would you like to join this amazing giveaway for a chance to own a brand new TOYOTA FORTUNER 2016? Simply follow the steps below to enter the competition :
Step 1) Likes this Page.
Step 2) Like this Post.
Step 3) Comment which color you want.
Step 4) Share on your wall
The winners will be messaged via inbox message. We will ship this car all over the world!
Good Luck!

There is absolutely nothing original here. This is a standard, run-of-the-mill giveaway scam that barely differs from hundreds of others that came before it, yet they still fool so many gullible Facebook users into jumping through hoops – hoops which will ultimately benefit the scammers behind these schemes.

Even the majority of the text attached to the image – such as the “first time in Facebook history” line – has just been copied from other almost identical hoaxes.

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When these fake posts go viral, it is not uncommon for them to be edited to include a link to a marketing website along with the assertion that to stand a chance to win the Toyota Fortuner you need to click the link and enter your personal details, which are then given to marketing companies and inevitably result in the visitor being targeted with spam.

The scam has many red flags. For one, it is against Facebook’s terms of service for promotions to request people share posts onto their own timelines. Additionally the page that made the post was only created days prior and is clearly not a page officially related to Toyota, and also lacks the blue verification mark to show it officially belongs to Apple.

Why so many people fall for these scams despite their glaring unoriginality is simply bizarre. They have been spreading for years and many people clearly enter them “just in case”, despite the fact that this is like-farming – the process of manipulating people for Facebook likes – a process which can be used in conjunction with phishing scams, identity theft and other scams.

Not only that, but by jumping through these hoops and sharing the post to your timeline, people are putting their friends at risk too.

Certainly time these silly scams stopped being shared so prolifically, we think!

Learn more about Facebook giveaway scams here.