14 DAY TRIAL // A fake Facebook page claiming to be administered by famous rap artist 50 Cent amassed an incredible 140,000 likes since its creation, by promising visitors millions of dollars in cash prizes.
The impersonator appears to have created the profile on April 30 and started promoting the fake raffles on the very first day, alternating them with false news about the rap star and the undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather.
The operation could spread across multiple pages
This appears to be a like-farming scam, the purpose being to increase the popularity of the page so that it becomes more valuable to marketers and can be sold for a larger sum. To achieve this, users are asked to complete three easy activities: like the page, share it and drop a comment.
However, some of the posts point to misleading news about the two celebrities, which suggests an interest in driving traffic to external locations (registered earlier this year), where advertisements are shown. The websites could also be set up for drive-by attacks that aim at compromising systems running vulnerable browser plugins.
It looks like the crooks have created multiple Facebook pages that impersonate celebrities. Apart from 50 Cent, there are Manny Pacquiao (over 8,700 likes) and a Floyd Mayweather (over 2,100 likes) fake Facebook spots.
Although both of them may be destined for running the same scam, only the one for Pacquiao is currently “sharing the wealth.”
Official pages receive the “verified” mark
They all have in common the “CEO” title appended after the name, which could indicate that they are operated by the same party, either a single person or a group of individuals.
All pages are currently active and racking up likes and comments. The number of likes and shares, and the comments posted, show that many users have been duped and unconsciously help crooks make money.
Fortunately, spotting a false Facebook profile in the case of celebrities is dead easy, since they have been checked by the social network and have the blue “Verified Page” badge appended.
The official Facebook pages for the three celebrities are:
facebook.com/50cent facebook.com/MannyPacquiao facebook.com/floydmayweather
