Avoid any giveaways for expensive products on Facebook if you don’t want to be a victim of cybercriminals.
Has anyone of your Facebook friends shared a page that promises to give two lucky winders a Mercedes Bend G-Class each? Know that this is yet another scam.
Participating with the chance to win the luxury jeep seemed fairly easy. All users had to do was to like the page, comment the post that announced the raffle with their color preference (if they “win”), and to share the post, so that all of their friends can see it. Then all they had to do was way and see if they are one of the winners.
This simplicity of participating and the luxury prize is what draws in Facebook users. Some believe that it is genuine. This way the page quickly gains popularity. And will have a higher rank in Facebook searches and suggested pages. The page quickly earned over 100,000 likes before being taken down. The post that promoted the supposed giveaway had over 190,000 like and 185,000 shares.
You are probably wondering how cybercriminals exactly aim to scam people with this giveaway, when all users are doing is to like, comment, and share. Spam messages can be sent to all who liked the page, commented on or shared the post. The scammers may or may not claim that the person has won the raffle. However, it is very likely for them to contain a link to some malicious website. There you can be asked to fill out a survey, which then can be sold to other cybercriminals. Another possibility is that your computer becomes a target for infection, and you definitely do not want this to happen.
You should always avoid suspicious pages such as this. Keep in mind that this is not the only scam page out there. There will be more, and new ones will pop up in the future. If you encounter one again, it is best to report it to Facebook, and let them sort it out before it is too late, and too many people get involved.