Category: Hazards (Page 1 of 12)

Romance Scams

April 22, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

The internet is a great place to meet people. But are you you meeting real people near you or scammers who are out to steal from you? Let’s go over Romance Scams, so that you’ll be a little safer making friends and finding that special someone online.

Red Flags

Is that person you are chatting online looking for a serious relationship, or just your money? It can be really hard to tell! But look out for these red flags:

They won’t have a voice or video call with you.
They are very far away and cannot meet with you.
Meet-ups are planned, but always fall through or are cancelled.
Things move very fast, e.g.: they profess their love too quickly or ask for marriage very soon after your first contact.
Requests for money come up, to help with medical expenses, travel costs or investment opportunities.
Communications move to privacy-oriented apps, like Signal or WhatsApp, and you cannot learn the person’s physical address or true phone number.

Honest people that you have just met may exhibit some of these, too. It can be hard to know who’s legit and who’s lying to you. As the red flags pile up, you should trust the other person less and less. But then you may also see if you can knock down any of those flags by:

Verifying Someone’s Legitimacy

This is easier said than done. Not everyone wants to cooperate with requests for personal info, and with good reason: How do they know that you aren’t a scammer?! Still, these items can go a long way to helping you believe that you’ve met someone like you:

Have a call with them, where you can see them and hear their voice.
Meet with them in a public place (library, coffee shop, high-traffic building).
Perform a reverse image search of any profile picture you have of them. That picture may track back to who they say they are, or it may turn up on a ton of stock photography websites.
Ask to postal mail something to them.
Do your own research, looking up tax records and court records through trustworthy government websites.
Talk with family or friends about your new online acquaintance, to see if they think things are kosher or sketchy.

What Can Go Wrong

I can’t tell you how to create a successful relationship or make lasting friendships online. That’s going to be a challenge for many people, even when everyone is being honest. The hope with this post is that I can help you avoid the worst of the worst and their scams, that are out to take advantage of lonely, trusting people. And to that goal, you should understand what these schemers hope to do:

Earn your trust to the point that you’ll send them some money. And then they’ll ask for more. And then more and even more money. This repeated money extraction is sometimes referred to as a pig-butchering scam. Once the victim is bled dry of cash, the criminal will ghost them and move on to the next mark.
Convince someone to engage in romantic written/photographic/video content. Once the scammer has enough adult or illicit material, they use it to extort money from their victim. The extortion can be as simple as “I’m going to tell your wife” or as devastating as “I’m actually 16 years old and I’m going to the FBI with those photos you sent.”
In rare instances, romance scammers urge someone to travel to visit them. If this happens, it could be a trap. When the romantic hopeful arrives in a foreign country, they could be robbed or kidnapped or worse.

Already In a Jackpot?

If you find yourself in the midst of such a scam, cut off communication ASAP. If you’ve been sending them anything of value, you have got to get a tourniquet on things. Don’t send any more money, and consider any previously-sent gifts or cash as gone and unrecoverable. If you have any other worries, find a trusted person (friend, family member, police officer, pastor, counselor) to consult with.

If you know someone who is in the midst of a romance scam, gently confront them to say how you are concerned for their well-being. Show them this blog post or the many other articles that are out there, describing how romance scams function. Be prepared for and understanding about their resistance. The scammers may be in their heads, and have secured their trust. It can be an uphill battle to convince a romance-victim of the larger truth. In extreme cases, you may have to arrange an intervention.

Logo Design Scams on Facebook

March 27, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Logo Design scams on Facebook are the latest to appear on group pages. These scams are brought to you by the same people who offer duct cleaning, mobile car detailing and more. Here are the deets:

What This Scam Looks Like

Again, this scam usually appears inside of Facebook Groups. The wording may vary, and can actually be a bit engaging:

This time around, the scammers are onto something. The forthright statements and proud attitude is a good hook, and holds the readers’ attention. I see a lot of these posts, full of comments from people who want to contribute their own opinions and attitudes on the subject. And their conversation makes the posts more credible!

But it’s still a scheme, and I recommend you shy away from these offers.

How This Is a Scam

Once again, I have to remind everyone that appearances are often not what they seem on the internet. The people posting these offers use Western names and American-looking photos. They look like they could be your neighbors, but they aren’t. When I chat with these folks, I send them links to click on. And when they do, I get to see their location in the world:

Almost all of these service-type scams are posted by people in Pakistan. I have nothing against the people of Pakistan. But I do have misgivings about dealing with a Pakistani who uses a sock puppet account on Facebook to present themselves as an American.

Incidentally, I am very forthright with these people, as I chat them up. I ask them plainly about their location in Pakistan. They either use coarse language at me, or block me. I do not ever get a civil response from them.

How These Scams Play Out

I would have to give these scammers some money to be sure of how the scam finishes. I’m not going to do that. So, here are my educated guesses on what happens to people who fall for these schemes:

The scammer plays you long enough to get an initial payment, and then blocks you.
The person actually gets you some logos and design options. But they are quickly whipped up, using free sites and AI tools, and certainly not worth $200.
They offer to help with your website design, which will give them access to your professional email and domain. Your passwords could be sold to a higher-level scammer who can abuse your email address and identity.

If you have dealt with these scammers, please share your story with me. I would love to update this post with more details!

However these ploys go down, you need to know that you will have no recourse. Whether you lose time, money or your entire website, these people are in another country, where our police cannot address them. These scammers will quickly block you on Facebook, and Meta will not assist you, even if you report the matter to them.

What You Can Do

It can be tricky to recognize these scams. Their verbiage gets better every year. But one useful trick is simply to search Facebook for the scam. Specifically, click and highlight one or two sentences in a suspicious post. Copy that text and paste it into the search field at the top of Facebook. You will know you have found a scam, if your search turns up similar posts from all over the country:

Next, report the scam posts. But understand that when you report things, you have a choice. You can report them to Facebook, but little to nothing will occur. Or, you can report them to the Group’s Admins. That is much more likely to help. The very real and local people that take care of that group will see your report and probably take action against the poster.

It’s quick and easy to report a post to the group’s admin!

Lastly, I do not recommend that you criticize or attack these scammers on their posts. They will simply block you. Once you have been blocked by them, you will be unable to see their posts or report anything that they do.

Shentel/Mail2World’s 2024 Spam Problem

March 9, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

If you still use a Shentel email address, you should know that there’s a problem with Mail2World’s spam filter right now. Some (but not all) Shentel.net email inboxes are getting a lot more junk email than is normal. After talking with Shentel tech support, I can’t say that I know what the problem is. I don’t know when it will be fixed. I can’t say with certainty that Mail2World is anything more than 3 children in a trenchcoat. But what I can do is teach you how to cope with Shentel/Mailworld’s 2024 Spam Problem in this blog post.

Shentel/Mail2World’s 2024 Spam Problem — Some people are getting several copies of EACH of these spam messages in their inboxes, every day!

What NOT to Do

First of all, don’t call Shentel expecting a quick fix. This problem is out of their hands, because Remember: Shentel doesn’t manage their email addresses anymore. They offshored their Shentel.net addresses to a company called Mail2World. And that company is really hard to get a hold of. But Shentel assures me that M2W knows about the problem and is working on it…

Next, do NOT unsubscribe from any spam! Clicking on unsubscribe (or any other links) in an unwanted message is asking for trouble. If you click on links in spam, you could attract more spam or lead your computer to a malicious website or download.

While you’re at it, don’t bother trying to use Block Sender on spam. It can’t hurt, but it isn’t likely to help. Block Sender is typically useful only for someone who always uses the same email address. Like that annoying relative who always forwards tacky joke emails to everyone he knows. Or the neighborhood Tupperware salesperson. Or a mentally questionable ex-boyfriend. Block those people to keep your inbox stress-free, but spammers change their email on every message they send. Blocking a spammer won’t work!

What to Do

Your best tool against spam coming to your Shentel inbox is the Mark as Spam function. This is not easy to find! Let me run through some steps on how to find this:

Visit the Shentel Webmail site and sign in with your email credentials
Identify any spam messages in your inbox, and check the box(es) to the left of each one
Above and to the right of your inbox email, click More and then click Mark as Spam

Using this feature removes the spam from the inbox and also sends a message back to Mail2World (and their anti-spam vendor) that these types of messages are spam. It should eventually help them block more spam, which benefits everyone.

Taking It to the Next Level

If we wait this out long enough, the hope is that Mail2World will figure things out, kick their spam filter into gear, and things will go back to … normal. A normal amount of spam, reliable email coming and going, etc.

But what if that doesn’t happen? What if this problem persists for much longer, or how about if new problems emerge as this one resolves? Mail2World doesn’t have the best track record and I am not prepared to assure you of their capabilities.

If you can’t abide anymore, then your next option would be to create a new email address. Gmail, Outlook.com, ProtonMail and a variety of other email offerings exist. You can create a new address with them at the drop of a hat, and for free.

I realize that concept is intimidating. Switching your email address, in some ways, is more of a labor than changing your mailing address. Not only are you faced with notifying all of your friends and family, but you must reach out to companies with the new email info. And then you get to log into all of your important websites, one by one, to convince each to update your email info.

But consider this: Changing your email address doesn’t have to be accomplished all in one weekend. You can create a new address and migrate things over to it at your pace. You can check two email addresses for as long as you want. Maybe you decide to keep and maintain both addresses?

Also, some email users create a new email address and forward their Shentel mail into it. This is a safeguard against people who “don’t get the memo” about your new address. And it can help with spam! For example, let’s say that you create a new Gmail, and route your Shentel mail into it. All inbound Shentel mail passes through their subpar junk filter, and then gets bounced over to Google. Then Gmail runs it all through their superlative spam filter, and the worthwhile messages arrive in your new Googly inbox.

The Girl Scout Cookie Scam

February 12, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

There’s always another scam just around the corner. And with these jokers in Scamdinavia, nothing is sacred. Please watch out for the Girl Scout Cookie Scam, circulating on Facebook and possibly other social media.

The Scam

You might already know this scam, but it’s still worth broadcasting. Because the Girl Scout brand is so endearing and trustworthy, some people are getting fooled by this nonsense. Check out these examples of the scam I’ve collected from Facebook:

Let me be clear: These posts are not legitimate, not endorsed by The Girl Scouts of America and not created by anyone in this country. People in Kenya or Pakistan have created sock puppet accounts on Facebook, stolen a bunch of photos with kids and cookies in them, and are simply posing and fishing for quick money.

Anyone who messages these schemers will be asked to pay for their cookies using Paypay, Venmo, CashApp, etc.. The poster collects the money and pretends to take down the address, and asks the victim to wait a couple of weeks for delivery. When the delivery day passes and no cookies arrive, the crook will be long gone.

What’s Scammy and What’s Legit?

Once you know what to look for, it’s easy to get your Girl Scout Cookies from a safe source. Here’s what to look out for:

A legitimate Girl Scout Cookie post will offer specific details, like:
- A URL to the Cookie Finder, or a personalized website for ordering, beginning with “gsdigitalcookie.com”
- The time and location where the kiddos will be setting up to sell their cookies in-person
- A variety of payment options, and no sense or urgency (pay when the cookies arrive)
A scam post will seem fishy, if you take notice:
- the child’s name or troop is not mentioned
- the cookie prices are wrong or too low
- the posting account is no one you know and you have no mutual Facebook friends with them
- the post has commenting turned off

If you see a scam post on Facebook, report it to the group’s admin or moderator. You can report it to Facebook, too, but they are unlikely to do anything.

For more info on how to get these delicious cookies, check out the Girls Scouts Cookie Program website.

Duct Cleaning Scams v2.0

February 10, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

If you aren’t familiar with the duct cleaning scams that abound on Facebook, I recommend you first check out my 2021 post on this matter. Once you’re up to speed on the basics, it’s time to discuss the new-and-improved duct cleaning scams. Duct Cleaning Scams v2.0 are beginning to spread throughout Facebook. Don’t fall for them and be ready to report them.

Upgrades

Duct cleaning scams are the same as before: People located in Pakistan are posting in American Facebook Groups, trying to sell duct cleaning services.

They use sock puppet accounts that make them look American. Posing as “local companies”, they are really just looking to schedule appointments, which they then resell to unlicensed people near you. The folks in Pakistan collect referral fees for each job s/he schedules. The people in America get suspicious cleaners at their door. Whoever arrives to clean ducts is not connected to any real company, and may overcharge for their service or commit other crimes.

But they’ve upped their game for 2024. The scammers are trying to appear more professional now. Their latest posts show a classy flyer with pricing, a business card, and a real website.

The wording of their posts is much improved, too. Gone are the copy-and-paste phrases that we rolled our eyes at, like “Believe our Work not Words!” Now they present more detailed and personalized posts that closely resemble everyday small businesses in our country.

Their sock puppet accounts are looking better, too. They’ve got dozens of them now, all sporting American names and stolen photos. They’re using the accounts to click Like on each other’s posts and photos, which makes them look active and more legitimate.

Same Tells and Giveaways

I am sure this is still a scam. First, I chat with these people. It’s the same ol’ schtick with them, but I still like to get proof when I can. I ask them where they’re from (Washington!) and then I send them a link to my address. (Oops, that wasn’t a link to my address, it tells me the location of the clicker:)

But there are other hints. Sometimes, I click the poster’s name to view their Facebook profile. And it catches my eye when their profile name doesn’t match with the name hiding in their Facebook URL:

I’ve tried calling some of their numbers (Houston TX area code, probably purchased through Ring Central), and no one ever picks up. But they answer texts and Facebook messages immediately. And they block me quickly, if I mention their home country:

And then there’s their website. The Titan website looks fine, but the devil is in the details. Looking up the domain name, I can see it was registered just 2 months ago, through a Czechoslovakian company. And while the images on the site looks crisp and pleasant, every single one of them tracks back to other, older, legitimate HVAC companies throughout the USA. Google Lens is really nice for doing a quick reverse image search, and it shows that these schemers just lifted their images from real duct cleaning websites.

Advice

If you recognize a duct cleaning scam, report it to Facebook, and then also report it to the admin of the group where it was posted. Facebook won’t do anything, but hopefully the group’s moderator will remove the post and/or block the sock puppet account.
Verify a service company’s identity with a simple phone call, or getting a referral from a true local. Make sure they have a contact number and address that makes sense for your location. Avoid contracting with any service provider that insists on texts or private messaging only.
If someone claims they have a license with the local county or NADCA, get that license number from them and check it out! Scammers will boast about having all their licenses, but won’t give them when asked.

More Facebook Phishing

February 10, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

I never think I’ve seen it all. I’m sorry to report, there’s always another scam, just around the corner. Today, I’m seeing a new take on Facebook phishing, and this time, it’s targeting Facebook Business Pages. The scammers are creating fake profiles AND fake websites, and hoping to fool everyday folk like you and I.

The Scam

The scammers are watching and waiting for a legitimate business to post on Facebook. Specifically, they’re looking for giveaway-style posts, where the business is offering something to anyone who comments on or Likes the post. It’s easy for them: They’re just performing a word-search on Facebook posts for “giveaway” or something similar. And when they find what they want, they spring into action.

They quickly create a phishing website that resembles the target company. And they also create a Facebook page, using the name and photos from the real business profile. Then they start commenting to people on their original giveaway post:

more facebook phishing — That comment is not from the real Freeman Foods, it’s an impostor!

Unsuspecting people might see these comments and be fooled into thinking that it is a real comment from the legitimate business. But the comment and link is fraudulent. The URL in the comment leads to a bogus phishing website that asks for your PII. And victims of that fake site will suffer from spam, identity theft or worse.

The Tells

This scam may be obvious to some people, but I should point out how to recognize this as a phishing attempt:

The comment links to a strange URL, containing “myfreesites”, “googlesites”, “sitebuilder.com” and not the real URL for the business. These other URLs are using platforms that let anyone create a website, on the fly, for free!
The English is a little off, because the scammer is certainly in another country. They could be in Scamdinavia or Carjackistan, but they hide this and pretend to be in the USA.
If you click through to the commenter’s page, you can see that it was created very recently and has very few Likes/followers. The legitimate business page would have many Likes and have been created far in the past.

The real Freemans Foods has thousands of followers and created their FB page in 2013.

Reporting the Issue

If you are the real business owner, and the scammer is commenting on your posts, click on the impostor’s name and use the 3-dots button on their profile to report them to Facebook. Then, return to your posts where their comments are, and report those as well. When reporting the comments, look for additional options to Block or Ban them from your Page.

If you are a regular Facebook user, and you see this type of phishing, feel free to report the scammer’s Page and comments to Facebook. The more reports they get, the quicker they may shoot down the impostors.

And if you want to go the extra mile, you can report the phishing website (URL) mentioned in the comments. This can help Google, Microsoft and other big tech in noticing and flagging that website, and it may lead to the site being removed from the internet:

Google accepts phishing reports at this website.
Microsoft wants unsafe website to be reported here.
Submit any phishing URL to Norton at this page.
McAfee has a page where you can submit a phishing URL.
The FTC welcomes reports of all kinds of fraud at this site.
Submit any phishing URL at the IC3, using this link.
You can also look up the phishing website at a site like this, and then send an email to the Registrar Abuse Email, letting them know that they are hosting a phishing website!

Rogue Chromium Browsers

February 3, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Everyone is free to choose what web browser to use on their computer. Many people use Edge or Safari, because it came as part of the operating system on the computer. Others opt for Chrome or Firefox. But what is worrisome and worth warning about is the use of rogue Chromium browsers. I hope I can teach you what these are, so you can recognize and avoid these.

Let me clearly state: Google Chrome is a good browser to use. If you use Google Chrome, please continue to do so! Chromium browsers are different. A Chromium browser is essentially a modified version of Chrome that has different abilities or behaviors. Many of these tweaks can lead to harm.

Examples of Rogue Chromium Browsers

The first Chromium browser that spread to average computer users was labeled Chromium, and had a blue-tinted icon, very similar to the classic Google Chrome icon.

This open-source version of Chrome was meant to be used by developers, programmers and other technical experts. To my eye, it really stands out when I find it on a layperson’s computer, and is often my first clue that I’m going to find other unwanted software…

Wave Browser is an example of a modern-day rogue Chromium browser. It is polished, has a classy logo/icon, and appears to be professional and fast to open. Those who use this may feel right at home, because its menus and behavior closely resemble Google Chrome. I’ll get to the devil in the details, though, in the next section.

OneLaunch is another rogue to watch out for. But this one is easier to spot, as it comes with a special bar that permanently eats up the top half-inch of your screen. OneLaunch will function as well as any other browser, but let me describe more of what’s under the hood here:

Detriments of Using a Rogue Browser

Sketchy Search Engine: These browsers often steer their users into using a modified version of the Yahoo search engine. This engine is not anything I would ever use. It’s been altered to include more ads and paid placement than the usual Yahoo engine. Many of the top results you get from this are promotions, malicious links and phishing sites.

I searched for “Xfinity phone number” in a variety of search engines, just now. Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo all returned solid results and the safe trustworthy phone number for Comcast. Yahoo.com also gave me good info. But when I use Onelaunch and WaveBrowser to do the same search, the results were riddled with ads and websites I would never want to visit. I can see this behavior leading some users to scams and false information and phishing websites.

Modified Start Page: When I test these rogues out, I notice the Start Page has been customized, to show a lot of strange things. Some are salacious news articles. Others are gross advertorials about health conditions. And even others are lures to bogus antivirus messages.

Eating Up Screen Real-Estate: Some of these browsers take a lot of liberty with your computer. OneLaunch installs a bar of icons across the top of the computer, and it remains up there, even after you close the browser!

Empty Promises: In some of these browsers, I see them boast that they offer Camera Privacy and better ad-blocking. I just can’t even with this nonsense. People desiring camera privacy simply turn off their camera. Close the shutter on their camera. Disconnect their camera. Slap a Band-Aid over their camera! Whatever your concerns might be about webcam surveillance, you should not be turning to a mystery app to solve them.

Constant Nags: These browsers may have various popups, trying to convince you to set them as your Default Browser, try out their extra products and more.

Who Really Makes These Browsers?: It can be hard to tell who’s behind these programs. I went looking into Wave Browser’s pedigree. It’s created by a company called Wavesor. That turns out to be the trade name for Polarity Technologies. Which is a subsidiary for Genimous Technology, a Chinese firm that has been investigated and criticized by our government officials.

What Else Came With This Program?: These rogue browser are downloaded and installed, often without the computer user understanding how or even when it happened! They can be sneaky like that. And if this app showed up unexpectedly, chances are good that they came with other potentially unwanted programs. I often find other adware to remove when I service computers with rogue browsers on them.

Moving Back to a Mainstream Browser

The good news is that if you want to reverse course and go back to your previous browser, that should be easy. Uninstall the rogue app, and your other browser(s) should still be there. These rogues don’t harm or delete anything from your system.

After that, you may want to run a few scans on the system. There could be some junkware, separate from the browser, that needs to go. Your antivirus is just the first tool to consider. I like to run specific tools, like ADWCleaner or Norton Power Eraser, to look for hidden nasties.

If you are struggling with this cleanup and feel in-over-your-head, please know that I deal with this everyday, and can help you in restoring things. Reach out to me if you feel like your computer is still acting “off”, or if any computer task is “above your paygrade.”

The Bitcoin Purchase Scam

February 1, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

The Bitcoin Purchase Scam is rather common right now, and I’d recommend you become familiar with it. It is just another Thank-You-For-Your-Purchase scam, and there is no truth to what’s in the message.

In short, this scam’s email announces a charge for a Bitcoin purchase you didn’t make. That’s because there was no purchase, but the scammers are hoping that you don’t know that. They want their victims to react quickly and reach out. Anyone calling the stated phone number will speak to a cybercriminal who is all too ready to lie lie lie and steal your money.

But here’s a longer, Too Many Words version, from a fresh incident that I just helped a client recover from:

From a Recent Service Call:

Today’s caller asked me to check over his computer, because he’d had some unauthorized transfers on his bank account. His bank couldn’t explain it to him, so they recommended he have his PC checked. I asked him a few questions about possible scams, but nothing rung a bell. So I dug in and eventually picked out the history and whole story of the scam.

About a month ago, he’d received this email, became concerned, and called who he thought was Paypal. It was not Paypal, it was instead some crook in Scamdinavia.

The scammer on the phone told my client some convoluted story, in order to convince him to install Anydesk and DWAgent (remote control software) on the machine.

I don’t know the in and outs of the scammer’s claims, but browser history from the PC showed that they’d visited the Paypal website, as well as Western Union. Perhaps they attempted some money transfers, but I don’t think they succeeded. And then things went quiet for a few weeks. But the scammer was playing The Long Game. He retained his remote-access to the computer and bided his time….

And more sketchy activity began a couple of weeks later: New remote control software (Supremo & RealVNC) was added to the system last week. And then someone installed a covert keylogger as a Chrome extension. My client didn’t recall any new phone calls, so I had to conclude that they were accessing the computer without his knowledge. They were adding these programs and attempting more bank transactions using his computer, while he was away or asleep.

For my part, I removed all of these control apps and crimeware. The Supremo was a challenge, as they’d put a password on it, but I persevered. In less than an hour, we had answers and a safe-to-use computer again. But the client still has plenty of work to do. Following up with the bank, changing passwords, chasing after money to see what, if anything, can be clawed back… I wouldn’t wish this stress on anyone.

Please, if you’ve read this far, understand that these crooks will go to great lengths to steal your money. Be suspicious of anything unexpected that arrives on your computer or phone. Try to verify things independently from any call or email that has you worried. And if it gets too complicated or overwhelming, just shut everything down and go talk to a friend. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

If you’ve received an email you are concerned about, feel free to forward it to me! I will write you back with my professional opinion as to if it is fake or legitimate. And if you’ve been had, you may call me and hire me to clean your computer. But call your bank first, prioritize your financials over your technology!

Typical Facebook Scams

February 1, 2024 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Scams continue to abound on Facebook, despite efforts and apologies from the man at the top. If you’re going to use this platform, please be aware of these typical Facebook scams, so that you don’t get taken:

Hair Stylist Scams

If you’re looking for a new ‘do, please be cautious you don’t get taken by “fake” hair stylists on Facebook. It’s a simple scam: Pose as a real stylist, collect a deposit or booking fee and then block the customer and disappear with the money.

This scam is a little harder to pick up on, though. First, these scammers (from Nigeria?) are willing to chat with you, using decent English and convincing slang. They may sound like cool, local people! Next, a pretend-hair-stylist may give you the name, address and phone number of a legitimate hair salon near you, when you ask. But they are not connected to that company — they just pulled it from a quick Google search to convince you to hand over your money.

Antivirus Offers

Some endorsements on Facebook won’t go to legitimate antivirus websites. They’ll go to a semi-phishing website, where they’ll try to get you signed up on spam lists, or entice you to download adware onto your computer.

Dental Care Assistance

I know that good dental care is expensive, but don’t fall for this nonsense. You won’t get anything but spam email and calls if you cooperate with this type of post.

Reduced-cost/free dental care is out there, though. Get off of Facebook and investigate what the trade schools and colleges in your area might offer!

Giveaway Groups

Scams are so prevalent on Facebook, that the scammers are creating closed groups for their schemes. These groups are essentially a place for their scams to collect and build up.

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than in one of these groups. Steer clear!

Paid Surveys

I imagine there’s a way to get paid for surveys, but a post on Facebook is not it. Instead, people who are duped by this will be handing over their PII to scammers. They will sign you up on countless spam lists, and possibly use your info in other scams or identity theft efforts.

Red Flags for Typical Facebook Scams

They show a URL to a GoDaddy or GoogleSite address.
Payment is through Venmo/CashApp while credit cards are discouraged.
A photo of American cash is shown.
They insist on texting or private messages, and don’t want to talk on the phone.