This scam targets people who use Facebook Messenger.

Adverts by text or email or on Facebook Messenger tell you that you must update to the latest version of the Messenger APP for security reasons.

There is a link to click to update and this leads to a page that looks like Facebook and asks for your login and password.

If you provide those details then they are forwarded to the scammer.

The page may then claim your APP has been updated or ask for bank details to verify who you are.

This scam started in mid 2020 but has been growing ever since. The criminals involved have created thousands of fake Facebook profiles to aid this scam.

Some versions of the adverts offer incentives to get people to click the link such as a monetary reward or cryptocurrency.

Never click on such links in unsolicited emails – especially shortened links where you cannot see what website the link would take you to.

If you want to check if you have the latest genuine version of Messenger then go to your APP store which will show you the latest and whether you need to update.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

This scam involves a series of messages supposedly to warn people of others reading their Facebook profile and offering a way to see who they are.

e.g. “Guess who viewed your profile?”

or “Guess who has unfriended you?”

or “Guess who wants to know more about you?”

Usually these scammers are offering an APP or a service to let you see who has read your profile and charge for that of course.

But Facebook have repeatedly said that there is no way for any APP or similar to access that information, so it’s fake.

Facebook do shut down anyone making these kinds of claims, but that takes time and in the mean time people have fallen for this.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

This scam is common on Facebook but also occurs on Twitter and Instagram.

The scammer offers a free All You Can Eat card at McDonalds, KFC, Burger King or any other fast food company.  The supposed reason for the give-away is in celebration of some anniversary and you have been randomly chosen for this gift.

That may sound reasonable but think about these points:-

1. Unlike a free pass, special offers such as “buy 1 get 1 free” make you purchase the item they are promoting in order to get the freebie.
2. A lifetime pass would be hugely expensive and for no gain to the company.
3. If a company was to give away items of such value, you would expect them to promote it heavily before the giveaway and ensure the prize went to a long term customer.
4. A lifetime pass to free fast food would be a guarantee for the recipient of obesity, diabetes type II, heart conditions and an early death.
5. Anyone with a brain who won the prize would sell it on eBay for a great deal of money.

Hopefully now you can see the illogic in the whole thing, which points to it necessarily being a scam.

The link to click to register your interest is a fake website of course that tries to get your login details, name, address, mobile number etc.

It’s all fake – these companies do not give-away all you can eat cards to anyone.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

Lots of scammers use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media networks to offer supposedly free gifts e.g. supermarket vouchers.

The scammers claim to have items of high value to give away to the first people replying to their advert.

There are various forms of this scam, with the most common being the offering of APPLE devices – iPads and iPhones. The offer usually claims that there is some strange reason why these expensive devices are to be given away e.g. they were returned unopened to the retailer or there was some minor technical issue or customs issues or a marketing ploy.

Whatever the fake reason, these are always fake.

Marketing companies do at times give items away, but it is very limited in volume and value and usually only to known customers.

The only people offering APPLE products for free are scammers.

The next most common variant of this scam is where scammers offer free supermarket vouchers – most people have realised these are always fake and no longer reply to such adverts but there are always some who do and may lose out as the scammer’s always have a way of getting something from the people who reply – maybe by selling their email address and other details  to identity thieves or email spam list providers or by conning the people into further scams in the hope of getting something valuable for free.

Watch out for these ‘free offer” scams in whatever guise.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.