Meta/Facebook/Instagram all offer various “badges” to their users and customers. Some are for free, while others you have to pay a subscription fee to get. But please be warned: If you get an email that says you’ve been granted a free badge, it is probably a scam. Here are more details on Facebook Badge phishing:
Phishing Examples
Here are some bogus emails, offering a badge as a reward from Meta:
The giveaways here are the sender addresses and the links provided. These scams often arrive from Gmail accounts, and offer links to Google Docs forms. Meta won’t be using any Google products to communicate with you!
What They’re After
The scammers are trying to steal your Facebook account. Anyone who clicks the links in these emails (DON’T DO THIS!) will be lead from one webform to another, where they are asked to type in personal info and then finally the login credentials to their Meta-related account.
Here’s what some of their sham websites look like:
Final Points
If you’ve fallen for this scam, you should seek to reset to change your Facebook password as soon as you figure things out. The more time that passes after the scammers learn your login credentials, the more likely it is they’ll change all of the security info on the stolen account. Once that happens, it becomes extremely unlikely that you’ll ever see your Facebook account again!
If you ever find yourself on a Google Doc-related form, and think it is unsafe, report it! Look to the bottom right of the form, and there may be a “Report Abuse” link that you can use. Google is pretty quick to respond to these reports. In my experience, they will take down scammy Docs in less than a day!