What A Scam

Share This! Pass This On! It's Not Going To Be Free!!

It surprises me just how many of these kinds of messages I see posted on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsap etc.  Messages that really do amount to simple and basic scams.

How often have you seen a message that requires that you share the post, or like to post or forward the post so that something truly amazing will happen? 

Lets analyse some of them..

"We will send out a free pair of 'x' brand trainers to everybody that clicks 'like' if we reach over 150,000 likes"

Really? You only have to click "Like" ? You don't have to provide your full name and address, or your shoe size? These trainers retail for over £50 + p&p per pair and they're willing to send out 150,000+ pairs? At a cost of over £7.5 Million ?  If you really believe that - then you best click 'like' straight away!

"<Insert Random Picture of Some Poor Child in Hospital> Share this and the more people that share this, then top businesses will donate large sums of money to cure <insert awful illness name here>"

Sigh - This is sad because people tug on our heartstrings and we just feel we want to share or click like. But which businesses have been named as offering money? No names? Oh, so are they aware of this? How are they going to keep track?

"PANIC VIRUS - PANIC DON'T DIAL THIS NUMBER - PANIC DON'T BUY THIS <Insert Famous Brand of Food/Drink> - SHARE THIS WITH EVERYBODY!"

Now these are interesting because they often come with headed pictures of what looks like a letter, or an email or some authority confirming that it's true... what to do? what to do?


Well, what really IS the purpose of all these "scams" ?  Mainly to get YOUR details. WHAT ? Did you just say... yep. To get YOUR information. It's a marketing scam really. Because if they can get you to click "like" or "share" or even worse, get you to TAG your friends in the posts, they get the opportunity to bypass your privacy settings and get a scam message through to your friends, and target them with additional information or scams.

So before simply clicking "like" or "share" or spreading the word and continuing the chain letter on, why not look up the information on a web site, see if it's really true or if it's just a scam, and make an informed decision before posting it on your timeline.