Category: Scam News

Fake Giveaway: Brilliant ways to avoid and report one

The internet and the social media platforms that connect people from all over the world gave birth to the term called Giveaway. These giveaways started out from being a way of saying thank you to all their loyal followers by the influencers on these social media platforms to the version of it now, which takes money from people in order to increase their following people by luring other people into it. Soon the system of giveaways got infiltrated with millions of spammers, scammers, and cyber criminals whose sole motive is to steal your money. These online cybercriminals will pretend to be famous personalities and offer big prizes at the end of the giveaway. As most of the giveaways, these fake giveaways would also have a set of instructions that people would have to complete in order to clear for the next round of giveaways. Now, the same cybercriminals would randomly text people including the less famous influencers, and would ask them to pitch in money for the big prize. In return for the money, they would earn followers as the set of instructions would include the task of following them. Excited by this, the people would start pitching money and others would indulge themselves in completing the instructions. At the end of this giveaway, the people realize that they have been tricked as they don’t receive the prize or followers and also lose their money. 

In today’s article, we will be disclosing certain tips and tricks using which you can spot one fake giveaway and report them.

Comments and Tags = increased chance of winning

Giveaway organizers asking you to comment on their post and tag people are completely normal things to do. Most of the genuine giveaway organizers will ask you to do that for them to randomly select one winner out of all the people tagged there. However, if the giveaway organizers are stating that commenting and tagging more and more people would increase their chance of winning a prize in the giveaway. This is just another strategy of these online scammers to know more people and spam them. This would not only increase the number of profiles who visit their handle but also increase the potential people they can steal from. One should always note that a genuine giveaway would only require you to comment once and only tag up to 5 people.

Lack of Terms and Conditions

Generally, all of the online giveaways would include a set of terms and conditions for all the participants. These terms and conditions are a necessary part if the organizers are conducting a legal giveaway. These terms and conditions would include general yet important information such as the details of the organizer, instructions on how the participants should take part, how will the winner be decided, and the other necessary details that should be disclosed during a giveaway. However, if you do not see these in the giveaway you are looking forward to, then it is a strong sign that it is a fake giveaway. One must always be very careful and look out for the terms and conditions before participating in any giveaway.

The winner is decided upon an activity 

The winner of a giveaway is usually selected on a random scale. The organizers would take help from any of the websites that are curated to pick the giveaway winners to choose the winner. However, if in a giveaway they state that the winner will be decided on the basis of a certain activity or any other calculations. So if the giveaway you are participating in or are looking forward to participating in has this type of instruction listed in their posts then we recommend our readers not to participate in that fake giveaway.

No response from the organizer’s side on your messages.

Usually, the giveaway organizers should and would always reply to your messages and answer any kinds of doubts or queries that you have. It is the duty of the organizer to make sure that you have no doubts and are able to participate in the giveaway. However, if you are not able to find any contact information or the organizer is not responding to your message then you should take that as a red flag and withdraw from the giveaway or not participate at all.

The organizers are giving away unbelievable prizes at the giveaway.

As much as the giveaway organizers and the participants love big prizes, it is not realistic. The brands and the giveaway organizers would only offer prizes that are practical. So if the giveaway offers a brand new iPhone or a new car to every winner, you can be sure that it is a fake giveaway. One should always be aware and alert while looking for these giveaways. You should pay special attention to the giveaways if the same is organized by small brands and big prizes.

Random Hashtags are used in the posts.

All the major influencers on the social media platforms and the social media platform itself agrees that hashtags are a great way to get more views on Instagram, Facebook, or any other social media platform. The usage of hashtags may not only increase the views on one of your posts but also increase the traffic on your social media handle. One must always use only important and relevant hashtags. If you come across a giveaway that has a lot of random and unnecessary hashtags, then be sure that it is a fake giveaway. Such types of giveaways use so many hashtags in order to make their giveaway reach a lot of people and thus, helping them earn more and more money. Now, there may be some of the genuine giveaways that use a lot of random hashtags, this is done in order to be viewed by a greater audience and thus attract a larger lot.

Fake comments are flooded in the comment section.

The comment sections of the posts are usually meant for people to express their opinions (preferably good ones) about the post. If you are looking forward to participating in any of the giveaways, look around you. What we mean is not actually looking around you, but looks around in the comment section of the post. If you see a lot of people talking, tagging others, and having a great time in general, then you don’t have to worry about anything and just go for it. However, if you come across a lot of fake comments and links to weird websites in the comment section, then do yourself a favor and stay away from these types of fake giveaways.

The news of the giveaway isn’t mentioned anywhere else except one social media platform.

As all of you may know by now that brands love organizing giveaways. This will not only make their brand reach more people but also get potential customers. However, if a brand is really organizing a giveaway, they will mention the details and information of it everywhere that is on all of their social media platforms. They do this in order to ensure that more and more people come to know about this. If you come across a giveaway that claims to be organized by a famous brand and yet there is no mention of the giveaway on any of the brand’s other social media pages or websites, then make sure that this is a fake giveaway.

It’s a prank!

Now, we know this may sound very weird and absurd but trust us. Some brands may often do this to engage with their customers. Just in case you come across a giveaway that is actually organized by a brand and is 100% genuine, makes sure you check the date as well 😉

How to report?

Now you may be wondering that even after all of this if you spot a fake giveaway, what should be your plan of action afterward. We would always recommend you to report the fake giveaways so that you not only save yourself from the trap but also help others by informing the social media platform’s security about the fake giveaway happening.

Details on how to report a fake giveaway:

Always check for every detail

Look for the contact information of the giveaway organizer and try to contact him or her. If you are not able to do that and also infer that the giveaway is 100% fake, then report it to the authorities. For example, on Instagram, you can report a post by clicking on the three dots provided on the top right corner of every post.

Block the organizer

Now that you have reported the organizer and the giveaway, you should block the organizer and the Instagram account through which he or she was conducting the giveaway in order to save yourself from any kind of danger.

Be Aware!

Never share your data or any kind of personal information with anyone in any context. The data should be shared only if you are very confident about it and you trust the person dearly. You must also make sure that you know how your data is going to be used if you share it.

In conclusion, however mouth-watering and mind-blowing may the giveaways sound, you must never participate or invest money unless and until you are sure about the authenticity of the giveaway and you know that the brand is a genuine one. 

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