‘Win a Vacation to The Maldives’ Facebook Scam

The Facebook Page is fraudulent. There is no Maldives vacation prize and no winners. It is a scam designed to gather large numbers of likes and shares so that the Page can be reused for further scam attacks or sold on the black market to other scammers.

According to this supposedly travel related Facebook Page, you can win a vacation to The Maldives for four people as well as $3000 spending money just by sharing a promotional post with your friends. The post claims that one share will be chosen at random as the winner and announced on the Page. It instructs you to like the Facebook Page for prize updates. The post features a montage of images depicting a holiday resort in The Maldives.

However, the Facebook Page is yet another like-farming scam. The promised prize does not exist and those who participate have zero chance of winning anything at all. The purpose of the bogus Page and post is simply to gather as many Page likes as possible in the shortest possible time. By tricking people into sharing the fake prize post, the scammers ensure that their Facebook Page is promoted to an ever-widening audience of Facebook users. And, most people who share the post will also like the Page in the hope of getting prize updates. Thus, the Page can get thousands of new likes within just a few hours.

Once the fake Facebook Page has gained a large number of likes, the scammers can then use it to launch survey scams or other types of fraudulent activity, this time to a much larger pool of potential victims. Alternatively, the scammers may sell the Page to other scammers via a thriving black market. The more likes a Facebook Page has, the more money it is likely to sell for.

Like-farming scams like this one are extremely common on Facebook and new versions appear every day. Despite widespread publicity about such scams, many Facebook users continue to fall for them. Be wary of any Facebook Page or post that claims that you can win valuable prizes such as vacations, cruises, or airline tickets just for sharing and liking. Don’t help these scammers by participating in their schemes.