Last year when Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg and his wife announced the birth of their child and the intention to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares, the post became a viral sensation. Though the generous act of the Facebook founder is unquestionable, the intent of individuals releasing giveaway posts that piggyback on Zuckerberg’s message aren’t so charitable. These fake messages of philanthropy are scams and they’ll drain the bank account of anyone who falls for them.
In this social media scam, morally bankrupt thieves quickly took advantage of Zuckerberg’s post to try and dupe people out of their hard-earned money. They released a series of posts that claimed Zuckerberg was giving millions to Facebook users who liked or shared the post advertising the giveaway. Once a target does as instructed with the post, the person is later contacted that he or she has been selected for the giveaway. All the winner has to do to claim it is to send in a certain amount of money to pay for filing fees, taxes, delivery fees, or some other form of payment.
Those who fall for the scam and pay anything to receive winnings will never see a dime of the promised cash.
It sounds unbelievable that a billionaire would give a portion of his or her accumulated wealth to random strangers on social media, but people fall for these types of scams all the time. Why? Hope. Hope for money to catch up on bills, pay off deft, or finally make repairs to a home or automobile. Hope can be blinding, however, and those who let down their guard because of hope might end up in worse shape financially than they were before clicking the post.
This type of social media scam is similar to certain email scams such as this one and this one. Spam filters and greater scrutiny by email account holders have reduced, but not eliminated the profitability of these scams, however, forcing scammers to get creative and look for new avenues of opportunity. Social media is a target ripe with such opportunity as well as people interested in what others have to share, and scammers know exactly how to cultivate that crop.
Many Facebook users caught on quickly to this scam and warned friends about the con. Some people mocked the scam, creating fake posts of their own that claimed Zuckerberg was giving away outrageous and impossible gifts such as a tyrannosaurus rex, a unicorn, and a unicorn riding a t-rex. While there were those who enjoyed lampooning the scam, some Facebook users fell for the con.
Random emails that congratulate recipients on winning a large amount of cash should be ignored, and so should similar social media posts. They are never true and will always make you pay to win.
No legitimate lottery will ever make you pay to receive your winnings. If you are asked to pay money to collect your prize, you are being scammed.
The only person who receives money from something for nothing posts is the scammer. Avoid the temptation to click on these types of posts or you will be the person who fills the pockets of the thief.