Win up to 5 tickets for a carnival cruise? Facebook scam

Viral posts are spreading on Facebook that claim the reader can win up to 5 carnival cruise tickets for liking and sharing a post.

The post, below, claims that by liking and sharing a post and visiting a link, you can win 5 tickets for a carnival cruise. Many of these posts have been uploaded in early 2016, many of which have accumulated hundreds of thousands of shares.

Surprise your family/kids by winning a Carnival Cruise (Limited Time)
Just share this post then go here: LINK REMOVED for a chance of winning up to 5 tickets for a Carnival Cruise. Winners are notified. Like our page for updates. Good Luck!

The posts are another examples of an endless string of fake giveaway competitions that we have been warning of for years, yet many Facebook users continue to like and share them “just in case” they’re true. We discuss this type of scam here.

Firstly, it is important to note that any competition or promotion that implores users to share a post onto their personal timelines is likely a scam, since this is against Facebook’s promotional guidelines.

Secondly, it is important to note that these “offers” are not affiliated with any carnival cruise company. Official pages belonging to cruise brands are denoted by a blue verification tick next to the name of the Facebook page, and the pages making these posts do not have such a tick.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

Thirdly, scams offering these types of giveways that link to external webpages should be taken with extreme caution as they can lead to potentially harmful webpages. In this case the scammy posts are linking to a rather typical “bait and switch” webpage that lures visitors into signing up for different prizes, of which they have little or no chance of winning.

Many of these sites require excessive personal information and these details are often sold off to “sponsored companies” and thus can lead to those who sign up being targeted with spam communication.

Please don’t fall for these scams, even “just in case” they’re true.