Sophos Cloud Optix
Have you seen a message on Facebook saying that free pairs of Ray-Bans or TOMS shoes are being given away to users?
Don’t believe it.
The messages, which have become widespread, actually point to scams.
Here are some of the messages that are being seen on unsuspecting users’ Facebook walls:
Get a Free Pair of Ray-Bans! (limited time only)!
Current Limited offerTo Celebrate the Summer, We are Giving Away Free Ray-Bans to All Facebook Users!
Get a Free Pair of Toms Shoes! (Limited Time Only)!
Current Limited offerTo Celebrate the Summer, Toms is currently giving away FREE pairs of shows to select facebook users for a limited time!
If you click on the links you will be taken to pages which try to trick you into sharing the link further amongst your Facebook friends. People’s excitement over the possibility of a free pair of Ray-Bans sunglasses or a pair of shoes outweighs their common sense it seems.
Before you know it, you’re being taken to webpages that ask you to hand over your personal information or take part in an online survey.
The truth is that you’re never going to receive that free pair of shoes, or be sporting some Ray-Ban sunglasses. The fraudsters who started spreading the links in the first place earn commission every time they trick someone into completing an online survey.
In some cases they might even ask you to enter your mobile phone number, and then sign you up for an expensive premium rate service.
So be on your guard!
If you were fooled into participating in this scam remove the message from your newsfeed, and delete any messages you may have inadvertently shared with your friends. That way at least you are no longer spreading it with your online chums. You can also report the link as spam – hopefully if enough people do it, Facebook will stop the scams from spreading further.
Make sure that you keep informed about the latest scams spreading fast across Facebook and other internet attacks. Join the Sophos page on Facebook, where over 170,000 people regularly share information on threats and discuss the latest security news.
I have seen a few of my friends fall for this scam and I have told them its a scam and they dealt with it…I mean how stupid do you think the people behind these scams think we are…its a joke I mean really a joke!
I am receiving a number of these posts from FB friends. What are they? New kind of spam or malware or nothing to be concerned about??
Jaye Brown Add Jaye Brown to get 500 Friend request in 5 minsApril 21 at 1:18pm · LikeUnlike · 1372.
The first one is a hoot: "We are Giving Away Free Ray-Bans to All Facebook Users!"
Really? All Facebook users? All 800 million of them? Free?
It's difficult to discern who is more stupid — the moron who wrote such a preposterous scam or the dimwits who fell for it. Either way, it demonstrates that some members of the human species aren't suffering from an overabundance of intelligence.
As has been said, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't" I've had "friends" who post these things, some even believe them! Sheeeesh!
Nothing is for free. If it says free its a scam and disregard it.
I accidently clicked on the link. Should I expect that some kind of malware was installed on my computer or that my private informaion has been taken?
Thank you for your help!
I fell for this one as well.
It seems to have triggered a load of spam emails to my emails address – a real shame given I thought I had my spam situation well under control.
Any advice on how to combat the spam emails?
I fell for it (stupid, I know), but my anti-virus started clanging when the link was clicked so I didn't fill out any surveys or provide any info. NExt step is to warn my friends that it's garbage!
Unfortunately, there are still tons of scams out there…There is a new iPhone app recently released, called Scam Detector, which exposes like 500 scams. It is worth checking it out, if you have an iPhone. The app is also online – they have a free web version, if interested. Google it, it's kinda cool, actually.
I fell for this one too, now they have my address and phone number, is there anything I can do?
I just saw one posted that has Oakleys instead of Ray-Bans.
aha……. would you elaborate on this topic abit more clearer please? what exactly is the scam here i dont understand it. Getting people's email adress can be done much easier, and i cant believe that all the effort was done just to get their email?
not a very informative post imo
Sorry you didn't find the article informative. We've written about similar scams many times before.
The scam is that you are not going to receive free Ray-Bans or shoes. Instead, you will either be driving traffic to a site which helps the scammer earn commission, or you'll be handing over personal information that may be used against you in future. (for instance, signing you up for a premium rate mobile phone service).
Hope that helps
It’s funny how I always tell my friends it’s a scam and the day after, they get hacked.
This is just low. I saw one of these scams involving walking shoes for women. I knew it was fake right away since I didn't think a reputable brand like that would really pull off something like that.