A Facebook post claiming to be giving away 3 2016 Toyota HighLander’s for those that share the post onto their Facebook timeline is spreading across the social networking website. However it is a fake giveaway like-farming scam.
The Facebook post implores readers to share it onto their timelines to stand a chance of winning. It also claims that you need to visit a link to obtain the Toyota HighLander.
A screenshot of the post can be seen below.
For the FIRST time in Facebook history we are giving away 3 Toyota HighLander 2016 to 3 Lucky winners that would randomly selected on September 15, 2016. Would you like to join this amazing giveaway?
To Participate Follow The Simple Steps Below:
STEP1: Like this Page
STEP2: Like and Share this post
STEP3: Comment Which Color Prefer
STEP4: Winners Will be Posted Public,Participate Here LINK REMOVED
Good Luck!
As our seasoned readers may have already suspected, this is nothing more than a typical like-farming scam using a fake giveaway to lure unsuspecting Facebook users to a Facebook page. Like-farming is the process of deceiving or exploiting Facebook users into liking a Facebook page and sharing the posts that it makes, and using fake giveaways or offers is one popular example. Learn more about like-farming scams here.
You can also learn about “share to win” type Facebook posts in our blog post here.
In the case of this like-farming scam, users are directed to an external link to obtain their prize. However these links direct to spammy marketing webpages that are designed to harvest the personal information of its visitors so they can be targeted with further spam. These websites are also related to serious scams like identity fraud, and it is how the spammers make their money since they earn a commission every time they trick people into interacting with these marketing websites.
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And of course, the 2016 Toyota HighLander’s purportedly on offer do not actually exist. It’s just a fake offer used as bait.
In this case the page that made the post is clearly a typical like-farming Facebook page. It lacks the blue verification tick that Facebook gives to pages that are officially linked to a brand, and thus the offer has nothing to do with the official Toyota brand. The page – called SUV Toyota HighLander 2016 – at the time of writing has made only a handful of posts and it has only recently been created – these are all popular hallmarks of fake giveaway scams.
We recommend avoiding spreading these types of posts. You are exposing both yourself and your friends to spam and potentially much more serious scams.
