14 DAY TRIAL // Scammers have come up with a clever way to harvest likes on Facebook. They’ve set up missing persons pages that promise hundreds of dollars in reward for those who like a photo of someone who has allegedly gone missing.
If you’re wondering what the crooks do with the likes, the answer is simple. Facebook pages with a large number of likes can be sold on the cybercriminal underground market.
Popular pages can be utilized by scammers and cybercriminals to advertise shady products and to lure unsuspecting internauts to malicious websites.
A perfect example of such a missing persons Facebook scam is provided by Hoax Slayer. There is (or used to be) a page called Missing Persons in Australia that publishes posts which read something like this:
“MISSING PERSON - HAVE YOU SEEN AMBER DANG?
$400 REWARD TO LIKE THIS PHOTO (1 PERSON ONLY) $1000 REWARD IF SHE IS FOUND
You MUST like our page Missing Persons in Australia to be eligible to win. Rewards are not tax deductible and is paid by the National Center for Missing Persons in Australia. Anyone having information should contact National Center for Missing Persons in Australia.”
No one ever gets the promised reward. As mentioned before, only the scammers get something out of this. Unfortunately, at least 8,570 users have already fallen for it and liked the page spotted by Hoax Slayer.
There are a lot of legitimate missing persons pages on Facebook and they can be of great aid. However, if you’re promised money or prizes, or you’re asked to install software, or visit shady websites, you’re most likely dealing with a scam.
If you come across such bogus pages, report them to Facebook.