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.