Beware of bogus pages on Facebook offering a Santorini Resort Giveaway to people who like the post, comment their country and click on a link to register & claim their gift. Don’t fall for it! It is a scam!
Posted on different Facebook pages, the giveaway may look convincing as the pages are named ‘Santorini Resorts’ or ‘Santorini Resort Giveaway Time’ or ‘Santorini Holiday Resort Giveaway’
What is The Santorini Resorts Giveaway Scam on Facebook?
The Santorini Resorts scam on Facebook is a like-farming scam that uses fake giveaway to make Facebook page go viral in order to trick Facebook Algorithm and make the page valuable to run Ads. When this is achieved, the page would be sold to online marketers.
How The Santorini Resorts Scam Giveaway Works
Aside from making the Facebook page go viral via likes, comments and shares, the scam is also an attempt to steal people’s personal and financial details. The link to register for claiming of the prize leads to different unsecured websites that have annoying pop-ups and fake giveaways like the one below.
Your address, email address, telephone number, will be requested and you’ll be made to tick a terms and conditions box. By so doing, you’re giving the fraudsters permission to sell your information.
This info include your – email address, IP address, browser type, cookies, device type, operating system, buying preferences and online behaviours. Though you don’t provide a ton of information, you subscribe to a bunch of daily emails, which in and of themselves aren’t suspicious, but might be several phishing sites waiting for your information.
Spotting The Red Flags
RED FLAG #1: The giveaway posts are all posted on pages that were recently created and have very few followers.
RED FLAG #2: Comments from people who claimed to’ve claimed the holiday resort giveaway are not real. Clicking on the profiles show that it’s a new social media account with little or no activity.
RED FLAG #3: The registration link redirects people to numerous unsecured websites that do not have SSL certificate and may try to install apps and programs into computer and mobile devices without your knowledge and consent. These apps and programs are often infested malware that pose a threat and risk to owners. Often times when people try to access the websites some browsers give a security warning. (see image below)
Tips on Spotting Fake Giveaways and Prizes
Follow these steps to help protect yourself from fake giveaways on social:
- Is the deal ‘too good to be true’? If the deal or giveaway is too good to be true, it probably is. A quick Google search will tell you if the legitimate company is promoting the giveaway.
- When was the page created? You can find out by checking the ‘About’ info of the page. If it falls below six month, it’s clearly a fake page.
- Check the branding – Often times, there’s a typographical error.
- Authenticity – Check out if the giveaway has been posted on the company’s social media accounts. If it hasn’t, the giveaway is likely a scam.
- Errors – Scan the giveaway post for bad grammar, missing words, or spelling mistakes. Any company can make a minor mistake when typing out a win notification. However, multiple or glaring errors are a bad sign.
- Are there notices about the giveaway online? It’s common for various news outlet to carry information about legit giveaways. By searching for reviews online you could also come across warning posts or complaints.
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