Messages from friends populate social media timelines every day. While some showcase photos of birthday parties, descriptions of the latest feline adventures, and other interesting items, some have a more deceptive purpose – a purpose often unknown to the person who liked or shared the post.
Scammers are always looking for their next score, and they’re frequently turning to social media platforms to find these opportunities. One such tool of generating revenue is to create a post that promises something for nothing, or for a few moments of a person’s time. In the post above, the scammer seeks to tempt viewers into clicking a link. To do that, the post offers something valuable for free.
Netflix is a popular company that offers quality entertainment for a reasonable monthly fee. Free is a much more satisfying price for most goods and services, and the scammer who created the Netflix post is preying on those who are tempted by free offers. When someone clicks on the post, the person is asked to share it with friends before he or she does anything else. This is to keep the post circulating to new people, spreading the lure to as many new sets of eyeballs as possible.
The next hoop a person has to go through to receive the free year of service is to complete a survey. No matter how much time a person invests in this process, the end result will always be the same – no reward.
The scammer can make money from this and similar types of posts in two ways – sell the pages that have become popular because of the continuously circulating posts and by selling the information received about the person who clicked on it. Whenever a victim falls for these posts, the only reward provided is given to the scammer who posted it.
If you see that a friend has liked or shared a post of this type, tell that person to unlike or unshare the post to remove it from his or her timeline. You might also consider sending that person a link to this article to help explain why such ads only help scumbags looking to perpetuate a scam.
You can help reduce the income of scoundrels by refusing to click on posts such as the one above and by telling others to do the same. Together, you and those you help to avoid this scam can encourage these criminals to pursue more honest means of generating income.