The LOTS of Homes ‘Tiny House Giveaway’ Facebook Scam
A Facebook page named LOTS of Homes claims to be giving away a tiny house to users who like their page, like their post, comment “done,” and share their post.
We were recently made aware of a Facebook like-farming scam where a dubious Facebook page claims to be giving away tiny houses (or little houses) to Facebook users who follow instructions in a post they published. A Facebook page named LOTS of Homes has published a post on Facebook that says they are giving away a tiny house and to be a part of the competition you must like their page, like their post, comment on their post, and share their post. The post says that the winner will be selected on November 10th, 2018.
The fraudulent Facebook post also contains various images of a tiny house and a description of the house that says “333 Square Feet, 24’ foot home, Side living room entry, Super-sized master loft and twin lofts, and spacious living room. Center kitchen with snack bar, easily accepts Washer Dryer, Apartment sized range and refrigerator. Full bathroom with residential sized sink cabinet and 48” shower.”
Tiny House Giveaway!!!
We are giving away this little house.
To be part of this competition you must follow these steps :1) LΙKE OUR PAGE [ Very Important ]
2) LΙKE THIS POST[ Very Important ]
3) COMMENT “DONE” [ Very Important ]
3) SHARE THIS POST [ Very Important ]
The winner will be selected on NOVEMBER 10th, 2018
We wish you a goodluck.__________________
333 Square Feet, 24’ foot home, Side living room entry, Super-sized master loft and twin lofts, and spacious living room.
Center kitchen with snack bar, easily accepts Washer Dryer, Apartment sized range and refrigerator. Full bathroom with residential sized sink cabinet and 48” shower.
Upon review of the images we were able to locate the origin of the images. The images are published all over the web and were not produced by the Facebook page or anyone associated with the Facebook page. A reverse image search of the images produced over 25 results. Therefor, it has been concluded that the images were stolen and the Facebook page is not in possession of the little house in the images they posted on their page.
The are many purposes of a like-farming scam. The main purpose is usually to obtain likes for a Facebook page. This allows the Facebook page to retain likes from real people and seem more legitimate. The name and permalink of the Facebook page can then change in the future. Furthermore, like-farming scams often give scammers a chance to “hunt” for gullible people to scam online. A scammer might contact someone who liked, shared, and commented on their post telling them that they won the prize. The scammer will then ask the Facebook user for an advanced payment to cover shipping or something else. When the Facebook user pays the scammer the scammer then moves onto the next person and the Facebook user does not get a reward. This is called advanced payment fraud, advanced fee fraud, advanced fee scam, or advanced fee scheme and it is very common on social media.
This has been fully researched and concluded to be a scam. Please be advised that you will not win anything if you follow instructions published on the Facebook post. You will put yourself in dangers way if you follow the instructions.
What to do if you fell for a scam
Do not share or like the post. This only promotes it to more people which is how these scams are usually spread in the first place. If you did, visit your activity and unlike the post.
If you completed online surveys associated there is not much that you can do. However, if you supplied your personal banking or credit information to a survey it is strongly suggested to contact your bank or credit institution for assistance.
If you sent an advanced payment in order to receive a prize contact your bank or credit card and file a claim against the transaction. Explain to your bank or the credit card company what happened in order to receive assistance for the matter.
If you used an online payment service to make an advanced payment contact them and let them know what happened. It is possible that you will be able to receive your money back from them.
Furthermore, terminate all association with the Facebook page. Unlike the Facebook page, report the Facebook page, tell friends that you might have tagged about the scam, and even change your Facebook password for safe measure.
