A lot of Facebook Pages run competitions. a number of them area unit legitimate giveaways, whereas others area unit total scams designed to gather your personal info.

There’s conjointly a gray space wherever legitimate Pages run competitions on Facebook during a means they shouldn’t. whereas there’s nobody evidence you'll rummage around for to identify a pretend competition, there area unit a number of belongings you will rummage around for that may mean one thing shady goes on. Let’s break it all down.

The Prize is simply too sensible to Be True

One of the largest hints that a contest could be a scam is that the quality of the prize and what you have got to try and do to win it. If it sounds too sensible to be true, it most likely is. Ford is nearly on no account about to giveaway a latest pony victimization Facebook. neither is the budget airline EasyJet about to offer everybody £500 vouchers to celebrate their anniversary; they’d be out of business during a year.

 



This isn’t to mention that there aren’t competitions wherever you'll win a pony or a £500 flight voucher, it’s simply that those area unit huge prizes. there'll be plenty a lot of to the competition than taking a fast survey that provides away your personal info.

Dodgy URLs or Pages

Take a detailed check out the URL and Page that claims to be giving one thing away. Often, they're a awfully great way to induce a plan on whether or not or not a contest is legitimate.

Take, for instance, the URL of the EasyJet “competition” my friend shared within the screenshot higher than. It’s “easyjet.com-air.win”. whereas it will embrace “easyjet.com”, it’s followed by “-air.win”. this suggests the particular web site domain is “com-air.win”; the “easyjet” bit could be a sub-domain like “www”. If I wished to, I might found out “easyjet.harryguinness.com” within the same means.

I’ve conjointly seen an analogous factor with Facebook Pages, wherever the Page name is that the same because the official one, however it’s followed by a amount. for instance, if “Ford USA” is that the official Facebook Page, scammers can found out “Ford USA.” and run a contest from it.

Any of this kind of URL or Page name unfamiliarity ought to raise serious red flags.

No Official Announcement on the house Page

Here’s another sensible test: check the official web site of the corporate that the competition claims to be from. once I visit the EasyJet web site, the primary factor I see could be a huge banner saying a 2 hundredth off sale. whereas it’s not proof, the actual fact they show promotions therefore conspicuously is certainly a touch that the competition isn’t legitimate. If EasyJet very were freely giving thousands of pounds price of vouchers, they’d virtually actually be creating an enormous lot of it.



You Have to Share or Tag Friends to Enter

Facebook has pretty strict pointers over what quite competitions Pages area unit allowed run. From the Pages terms and conditions:

Promotions could also be administered on Pages or among apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines and friend connections should not be wont to administer promotions (e.g. “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend’s Timeline to induce extra entries” and “tag your friends during this post to enter” aren't permitted).

This means that the very common competitions wherever you wish to Share a post or Tag 3 Friends to enter are literally against Facebook’s Terms of Service for Pages. Given however common this sort of competition is tho', it’s clear several Pages simply ignore Facebook’s stance.



While several legitimate Pages, just like the national capital gymnasium within the screenshot higher than, run competitions like this, the actual fact they’re ignoring Facebook’s rules could be a little bit of a red flag. If they’re ready to chop corners with however they’re running the competition, they’re most likely ready to chop corners elsewhere. Facebook might conjointly simply shut them down at any time.

Too several Competitions and No Proof Prizes got Away

Most little businesses can’t afford to grant away ten iPads. If alittle native business or new startup is running competitions hebdomadally with massive prizes (iPhones and iPads area unit perpetually popular), then they either have terribly deep pockets or there’s one thing queer occurring.

Similarly, if a Page is running plenty of competitions and ne'er saying the winner or sharing a photograph of them with the prize being given, it’s another red flag. whereas Pages don’t need to publically announce the winner in most places unless the prize is over a particular price, it’s sensible subject matter for them to try and do it. And subject matter is that the reason most Pages run Facebook competitions within the initial place.

Both these red flags appeared with the launch of (the currently dead) Pretty.ie. within the area of a year, the Facebook Page ran twenty two competitions and racked up virtually one hundred,000 likes. The national capital questioner thought one thing was off, in order that they tried to trace down the winners. They couldn’t realize any. They tried to contact the Page’s owner so they may be place in reality with a lottery winner however their phone calls were ne'er older. Instead, a number of days later all the competition posts were removed and also the Page was all the way down to thirty two likes. Sounds suspicious, doesn’t it?

What a Legitimate Competition appears like

The biggest factor that legitimate competitions have going for them is…well, the alternative of all the higher than. cross-check this promotion for Amazon’s The tour. The competition is being shared by a legitimate Page related to the show. It’s linking to Amazon’s web site. The prize is completely reasonable: a studio visit for a recording. There’s even a T&Cs disclaimer! There’s virtually nothing regarding this competition post that means it’s not what it seems to be.



Facebook takes a hands off read of competitions. whereas they understand folks can run them on their platform, they require nothing to try and do with it. the rules build it terribly clear that they settle for no responsibility for competitions go by Pages and that they won’t police them, instead, it’s up to the Page to form certain their competition is higher than board. whereas this makes it straightforward for legitimate Pages to run competitions while not jumping through too several hoops, it will conjointly leave the door open for scammers.

The best recommendation I will offer is trust your gut. If a contest is giving off quite one or 2 red flags, perhaps don’t enter it. And no matter you are doing, ne'er offer your Facebook login details to or pay anyone UN agency claims you’ve won a contest they’re running.