The Latest FaceBook Scams And How To Avoid Them

As someone that posts beer content on social media every day, I’ve unfortunately had to encounter all sorts of scams, and since most of these are on FaceBook, I thought I’d give you all a collective “heads-up.” These scams range from harmless, to pornography, to full-on dangerous financial scams looking to exploit your money, your FBook account and your time. So here are a few…and be sure to check back as I add the new scams I encounter.

Niagara Falls Of The Grand Canyon

This may seem like a funny name, but it’s the actual example of one that I encountered, and it goes like this:

You see a photo of Niagara Falls on FaceBook, BUT the caption says that it’s a photo of the Grand Canyon. This can be done with everything from travel photos, to animals, famous people and even Artificial Intelligence (AI) photos.

Since everyone on FBook likes to correct other people and argue, naturally the post will get tons of comments telling the original poster that they are wrong and the photo isn’t the Grand Canyon. In the end, the post and account gain a lot of traffic and a lot of clicks.  From here, the scam can simply be a fake way to build search authority, or more likely the original poster will then alter the original post to be something that financially benefits them or something that leads to a further scam. In my experience, the post was changed to another scam trying to capture someone’s credit card. Keep in mind that the scammers also use this method to identify vulnerable people that they will target directly later.

Solution:  BLOCK the account and DO NOT add comments or corrections. The more people that start recognizing this behavior, the less the scam will work. You can/should also report it to FBook so their account and hard scammer work gets lost.

MISSING PETS:

This one break my heart, since it not only attempts to scam people, but it makes it less likely that a real lost pet will get returned home. The scam is very similar to the Niagara Falls scam above, only the original missing pet post gets tons of comments AND it gets shared to lots of other groups and other accounts on FBook, again making the post and posting account very popular. From there the original post gets changed to a scam post that is now spread across tons of accounts. Keep in mind that the scammers also use this method to identify vulnerable people that they will target directly later.

Solution:  BLOCK the account and DO NOT add comments or share the post. The more people that start recognizing this behavior, the less the scam will work. You can/should also report it to FBook so their account and hard scammer work gets lost.

Send Me A Photo Of The Secret Code:

This scam is an interesting one. It started for me in FBook Messenger where a new “friend” messaged me that he works for FaceBook and I had won a new $70K truck…and he was here to help me claim it. In order to claim it, he gave me a cryptic code that was something like FB-279-9783. To claim my prize, I had to write the code on a piece of paper and take a photo of the code and text the photo to him.

The goal here is to compromise your cell phone number by using the photo to get your cell number and then creating a Google Voice account to exploit your cell phone number and launch other scams that then get blamed on you. Keep in mind that the scammers also use this method to identify vulnerable people that they will target directly later.

Solution:  BLOCK the account and DO NOT respond or send your photo. In my case (to drag the real scam out into the open) I said that I didn’t have a cell phone but I could use a normal camera to send the photo of the code. Of course the scammer complained that it HAD to be a cell phone photo. Again, the more people that start recognizing this behavior, the less the scam will work. You can/should also report it to FBook so their account and hard scammer work gets lost.

What Cloud Are You:

This scam applies to all sorts of FBook polls and quizzes. The one I witnessed, was a post that said What Cloud Are You? but I’ve seen what vegetable are you, what dog breed are you and more. When you respond to the quiz, you are inadvertently giving the scammer the ability to change your privacy settings, and ultimately compromise your account.

Solution: Don’t answer these polls or quizzes and be sure to BLOCK the account and report the account.

I’m giving away my Camera for Free:

I see this scam a lot on photography FBook groups. The original poster once again posts that they are giving away for free an amazing camera equipment kit because they bought a new camera and they want to pay it forward with their old camera kit or some other amazing free item. Again the post becomes very popular and gains a lot of traffic. The original poster requests that you direct message them and they either attempt to compromise your credit card to pay for “shipping” or they alter the original post to launch a different scam like the ones mentioned above. Keep in mind that the scammers also use this method to identify vulnerable people that they will target directly later.

Solution: BLOCK and REPORT the original post to FBook or FBook Group admins.

@Highlight To See Who’s Watching You

I see this all the time, and unfortunately, I see people falling for it all the time. A FBook account posts a message like the graphic above. Lots of people fall for it, and comment on the post, again making the post and creator’s account very popular. In the end, there doesn’t seem to be a goal beyond that, but typing @Highlight in any post does NOT let you see who’s checking your profile. Instead it simply promotes the original poster’s account.

Solution: BLOCK and REPORT the account.

There are lots of other scams running out there, but these are the latest, and by now, I think most people know they don’t have a relative in Nigeria that wants to leave them $10-billion.

Stay tuned for more updates.  zzubreebym