Here at Geek Squad, it goes without saying that we’re huge Facebook fans. But while Facebook can be a ton of fun, it’s also home to a number of scams and swindles to catch out the unwary. The latest scam is taking advantage of the huge popularity of Pokemon GO but don't worry – our Agents are on hand to help you stay safe!
Facebook scams can take many forms. At their most harmless, they’re simply annoying – posting spam to your wall and annoying your friends and followers. But some of them are altogether nastier, posing a serious threat to your personal data and even finances.
The good news is, our Agents are dab hands at spotting this sort of thing – and below, we’ve exposed five of the worst scams currently doing the rounds on social media.
Before we begin, though, we highly recommend that you follow the Geek Squad UK team on Facebook if you don’t already. We’ll always share tips and tricks for staying safe online, whatever the latest threats are – and you’ll also have a front-row seat for all of the fascinating, informative and entertaining articles our Agents post every day!
With that little aside out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the most nefarious (or simply annoying) scams you might encounter on Facebook, starting with the most recent one we've spotted!
SCAMWATCH - POKEMON GO PLUS PRODUCT TESTING
Unless you've been under a rock-type Pokémon you've probably heard about Pokémon GO, the mobile game that's been taking the world by storm.
You can't go anywhere without seeing clusters of people staring at their smartphones, desperately seeking that elusive Pikachu. Now to make life easier there's a wearable on the way called the Pokémon GO Plus, which allows you to hunt and capture Pokémon without having to take your phone out of your pocket. Even though these haven't been released yet they're already sold out thanks to pre-orders, making them arguably the most sought after gadget on the planet right now.
With these being in short supply it's no surprise that people would jump at the chance of being given one for free, the only catch being you need to review it. That's what these ads for ProductTesting.uk.com promise, however once again all is not as it seems.
The way this company makes their money is by, surprise surprise, selling on your personal details so other companies can spam you with marketing information. A quick look at their terms and conditions, which you HAVE to agree to if you want to sign up, does set a couple of alarm bells ringing.
However if you study their privacy policy, and we'll be honest we're guilty of skipping these things too, then the company even spells out exactly what they're planning to do with your data!
Once again the message is clear, avoid this one because the only thing you'll be catching is all the spam!
Bogus coupons AND VOUCHERS
Everybody loves a freebie, and companies do indeed run giveaways on Facebook – but lately there have been some nasty scams doing the rounds, preying on our trust in famliar brands.
These scammy Facebook posts promise a free coupon, often tied in to celebrating a birthday or anniversary. Examples of these include £500 shopping vouchers for the likes of Tesco and Asda, and a £150 Wetherspoons voucher in honour of the chain’s 37th anniversary. All they ask you to do is like and share the link on your own timeline and post it to five other Facebook groups.
But in actuality, the links simply lead to you to extremely dubious surveys which harvest your personal details. This results in a nice little payday for the scammers, who get paid per survey completed – and leaves even more vulnerable to even scams and spam, as your personal info is sold and shared.
Suffice to say, there are no £500 Tesco or £150 Wetherspoons vouchers to be had, and these posts are in no way endorsed by the companies they claim to represent!
However, there are ways to spot these, if you're on the ball. Typically the pages that post these scams are short-lived as Facebook shut them down once they appear on their radar. That means that if you do see scam like this, chances are the page has only been around for a couple of days, and certainly nowhere near long enough to be the official page of a big brand name. If you visit the page you'll probably only see a couple of posts and a notable lack of any official-looking activity. Also a lot of official company accounts will display a blue tick next to the name which is Facebook's way of telling you that they've verified that it's an official page.
It’s a particularly clever scam because it seems just plausible enough to be true – but as a general rule of thumb, if a Facebook post asks you to complete a survey in return for some kind of monetary or material reward, it’s almost always a scam!
'Share and Like to win a free iPad/HOVERBOARD/RANGE ROVER'
Similar to the voucher scam above, these posts, which promise to give away everything from gadgets to cars, exploit our natural desire for free stuff in order to promote a scammer’s malevolent agenda.
Once again, you’ll be asked to share the post on your own timeline, and you may also be asked to complete a survey or collect a code from an external website. These sites are common vectors for viruses and malware – and at the very least, will result in your personal details being passed on to other unscrupulous scammers.
And even if you’re not required to leave Facebook, that doesn’t mean the offer is legitimate. In these cases, the spammers are often ‘Like-farming’ – boosting their page’s popularity with as many Likes and shares as possible to improve its chances of appearing in users’ Facebook feeds.
Once it’s sufficiently popular, they’ll change the page’s original content to promote their own dodgy material – again, usually a bogus survey or scammy product for sale. By Liking these pages, at best you’re polluting your friends’ Facebook feeds with spam – and at worst, you’re exposing yourself and others to fraud, identity theft and malware.
Much like the voucher scams the same tell-tale signs like an unusually sparse page and lack of a blue verfication tick will give the game away. As ever, it's worth applying this common rule of thumb: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is!
Facebook cloning
Recently, you may have seen a post shared on Facebook warning you to beware of accepting a second friend request from somebody you're already friends with. And while many highly shared warnings are themselves bogus, this one is actually worth paying attention to.
It refers to a scam known as ‘Facebook cloning’ – and here’s how it works:
The scammers search Facebook for a user whose profile that has a lot of public information on it. Then, they download the images and personal data, and set up a nearly identical profile in that user’s name.
Then, they go about adding all of that user’s friends to the new, fake profile – hoping they’ll be tricked into adding them for a second time.
From there, the scammers can post scammy links and send deceptive messages to their heart’s content. These can take any number of forms, including the scams we’ve identified on this list – and because they seem to come from someone you know and trust, it’s all too easy to be taken in.
For that reason, it’s always worth double-checking when you receive a friend request from someone you already know. It’s possible it’s just a misunderstanding – but if someone’s using your friend's identity to target others, they ought to know about it!
In fact, if you suspect that a profile is fake or fraudulent, it's a good idea to report it to Facebook yourself – you can find instructions for doing so on their help pages here.
The 'Facebook lottery'
This is the modern, Facebook-flavoured version of a scam that’s been doing the round by both post and email for decades.
It all starts when you receive a mysterious message claiming that you’ve won a lottery that you don’t even remember entering – and all you need to do to claim it is pay a relatively small ‘administration’ fee or similar.
At this point, you probably know what happens next: the fee you pay disappears forever – along with the scammers and any prospect of ever claiming your surprise lottery bonanza.
Now, when it’s put that way, you might wonder how anybody could fall for this kind of scam. But there’s a reason it’s been around for so long: it works.
It preys on the most basic human impulses – and all too often, those who fall for it are the elderly or otherwise vulnerable.
For that reason, it’s important to be aware of how it operates. The message usually follows a friend request from an unknown person claiming to be a member of Facebook’s staff – although it might also come from the ‘cloned’ account of one of your friends, as described above. Inside the message, you’ll be told that you’ve won an extravagant sum on the ‘Facebook lottery’ and asked to click a link or contact a certain user to claim your prize.
When you do, the request for cash soon follows – and even if you don’t pay up, the link you’re asked to click often comes loaded with dangerous malware or viruses.
Like I say, this is one of the more brazen scams out there – but people do fall victim to it. So if somebody you know tells you about this fantastic prize they’ve won through Facebook, make sure you let them know the real score – and if they’re still convinced, point them to this article!
This should help keep you safe from some of the worst scams doing the rounds at the moment – but if you've seen anything dodgy we've missed, do your bit and let our readers know about it in the comments below!