NOBODY IS GIVING AWAY ANYTHING FOR FREE ON FACEBOOK

Today there has been a post floating around on Facebook about Texas Roadhouse giving away meals. All you have to do is comment on it and share the post! WOW! HOW COOL! THIS IS AWESOME! Except it’s not. Not at all. This is a classic scam that has been going on for years on the social media giant. Whether it has been about a restaurant giving away food or gift certificates, a bunch of RVs being given away, or even the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg giving away cash none of them have been real. Ever. Yet people see them and share them willy-nilly on their page and in groups that you may be a part of or follow. These same people then wonder why they get spammed with certain items, get strange emails, or get their account hacked or cloned. So let me give a quick lesson here when you see something too good to be real on social media. Here is a picture of the fake post being circulated made by someone that is NOT who they say they are.

It seems so cool and an easy score for you or others. This is where it’s too good to be true thoughts should enter your conscience and make you want to verify this opportunity. YES, EVEN IF YOUR GOOD FRIEND OR RELATIVE SHARED IT. As you can see if you comment on the post they answer with a canned response telling you to share it on 8 group pages to get “verified”. Seems legit, right? Wrong.

There is no free lunch and it still holds true here. They are simply fishing for your information, your friends’ information, contacts, and who knows what else. If you want to verify if this a real contest or offer simply search for the real business and see if their page, usually verified with a blue check mark is sharing the same thing or if they are warning of a scam as Texas Roadhouse did just this last September when a similar scam was floating around. Their main targets are usually older people or those that are easily taken advantage of. So, if you see someone you know share something like this please let them know that it is not something they should share and please don’t do it yourself. You can report the post to Facebook and they can hopefully get it removed quickly. Save yourself and your friends from the headache of being scammed with these simple tips.