Will 85 people really win a Royal Caribbean cruise on Facebook?

Links are spreading on Facebook claiming users can win a Royal Caribbean Cruise if they like and share a Facebook post, like a Facebook page and visit an external webpage.

The links claim that 85 people will win an all-inclusive Royal Caribbean Cruise along with $5000 spending money. The link can be seen below –

85 People Will Be Winning 5 All Inclusive Royal Caribbean Cruise Tickets to Any Location On Us (Ends on March 10 2016)
Good news were giving you and 84 other people a chance to win an all paid for Royal Caribbean Cruise. Each winner will receive 5 tickets each for a date of your choice with $5,000 spending money.
To enter for your chance to win simply follow the rules below!
You Must Complete The Following:
1. SHARE this photo!
2. Like This Page
3. Comment Thank You.
4. Click the “Sign Up” button on our page
Competition ends On March 9 2016 . Winners will be Notified Via Inbox Message.
Good luck

However this is a typical Facebook competition spam designed to lure visitors to spammy marketing company websites that harvest personal information from those who sign up.

The claim that Facebook users must like and share a Facebook post to win a Royal Caribbean Cruise is completely false and used only to help the spam spread across Facebook from user to user.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

Once a Facebook user jumps through all the hoops on Facebook, they are told to click the Sign Up button on the Facebook page. This leads to a website belonging to a marketing company. However a closer look at the rewards page reveals some very discerning terms and conditions in the small print.

We may share your information with carefully selected partners for marketing purposes. You also agree to receive information by post, telephone, email & SMS from Singularis Digital Limited and third parties. We may use the winners’ details for publicity purposes.

Essentially you’re entering a prize draw, but by doing so you’re parting with your personal information and agreeing to receive lots of spam in the process, and given how unlikely it is to win with these types of marketing “rewards” companies, it is clear that it is not worth the effort.

We’ve been warning of these types of scams for a long time and people continue to fall for them “just in case” they’re true. However these scams often lead to victims being targeted with excessive spam and even identity theft. Do not share these links on your own timeline as you are only putting your own friends at risk of the same scam, and remember to delete them if you do fall for this scam.

Cruises and airlines are common targets with this type of spam, and we always recommend avoiding it since it is only the spammers that will profit – they get paid every time they recruit someone into signing up. You can read our full article on fake Facebook giveaways and competitions here.