There are a billion+ Facebookers. We like to like and we LOVE to share. Especially if our sharing might score us some free stuff. I’ve seen promises of free airline tickets, $200 coupons to Home Depot, Kohl’s, or Aldi, and even free PS4 and Xbox game consoles for anyone willing to simply click share and take a chance that it’s true. What’s the harm in sharing? No risk with the possibility of a sweet reward.
I don’t blame anyone for playing the Facebook sweepstakes and taking a shot at one of these offers. Unfortunately, and almost always, if it’s too good to be true… it probably is. Home Depot is not in the business of giving away $200 coupons with no minimum purchase. And airlines like JetBlue, Southwest, and certainly all the others are not giving away free tickets. Southwest doesn’t even give free peanuts, so I definitely wouldn’t expect a free ticket in exchange for sharing a post on Facebook. (Fun Fact: I still have 2 packages of Southwest peanuts from the very last day they were served in-flight.)
Spoiler alert… When you share a post like this, you’re not going to get what you’re hoping for. When you share, you could be exposing your likes, interests, and other personal information to the scammer that’s running the scheme. You may also be exposing your network of friends and family members to a scam that could result in further identity and behavior data exposure – which is more more valuable to a bad actor than the price of a flight to Vegas.
Such scams are generally aimed at “farming likes” on Facebook, an activity that produces a valuable asset for scammers to sell to others seeking an audience on the social network. As is generally the case, legitimate large scale giveaways involving a brand like PlayStation are almost always conducted through the company’s official social media channels. – Snopes
So today’s quick tip is: If it’s too good to be true… Don’t share it! If you do share, don’t worry. You won’t have change your passwords or cancel your credit cards, but by keeping our information exposure to outsiders to a minimum, you can reduce some of the risk that comes with living in Facebook’s world. If you are unsure about a particular post or offer, Snopes is a good place to fact check some of those tempting offers before clicking share.
