Here too, great things are promised and certainly not kept.

Small houses, big houses - on Facebook you obviously have the opportunity to win everything for free. Unfortunately, we now have to disillusion all users - because the dream house remains one.

Many of these supposed good Samaritans are simply fraudsters who have no interest in actually keeping their promises of winnings. The same goes for the Dream House Facebook page:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

Dream house competition
We are giving away a dream house for the whole family on August 25th.
The conditions of participation are simple!
Be a fan of our site –> Dream house
Like & Share this post
Comment with home

For data protection reasons, the winner will only be notified personally.

This competition has no connection with Facebook.
Legal recourse is excluded!

Good luck to all the participants

The fact check

If you look at the comments under the album, you come across a very interesting note:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

Hello, the link I received via messenger is for a car competition... is that correct? but I wouldn't mind a new car since I'm a commuter...

Suspicious, suspicious... so let's take part too to see where the journey takes us. And indeed. If you have sent a private message, you will receive the following message:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

Dear … !
In order for your participation to be valid, please take part in our competition via our link!

Please don't forget to confirm your email to confirm your participation.
Good luck!

If you now follow the link like the commenter did, you will reach the following page:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

Suddenly you should have a chance of winning an Audi A3 worth 22,450 euros...

Affiliate programs

So what we have in mind here is a very classic fake competition that leads to a so-called affiliate program.

They operate on three levels that allow you to see what it's really about. Because fake competitions, which have a strong virality, are a business model. In contrast to real competitions that are organized by companies for advertising purposes, fake competition organizers use the product as a decoy.

3 steps

imageThe first step is the bait. This bait usually appears in the form of a status message on Facebook, a WhatsApp message or, in rare cases, an Instagram message. These baits are all identical in nature: they convey the hope of winning that you basically already have in your pocket. They seduce with the ease of participation and lure people to a website. This is the bait . The bait is the viral entry into the competition process.

imageStep two usually represents a website on which there is a supposed competition with a question and answer session. This round of questions is not necessarily always present, as it is actually irrelevant and is only intended to simulate the character of a competition. We also call this step two the bridge . The bridge takes the form of a fake competition. In this bridge, you are usually promised a win directly, deception is used and fake elements are used. Ultimately, this bridge is also an illegal component because the promises made are not kept and the structure and presentation uses protected graphic elements. The corporate design of existing companies and their products are mercilessly exploited; on the bridge people also like to pretend to be the company depicted. Goal of the bridge:

a) Generate virality (example: forward this competition to 20 contacts)
b) include a link that should lead to the supposed prize

imageThe third and final step is a so-called affiliate program. You leave the bridge via a link that contains an affiliate code that belongs to a commission program. This is an affiliate whose content, if possible, correlates with the fake competition taking place in the bridge. We call this final link the exit. Note: The exit itself, i.e. the affiliates that are linked to, is not illegal! These are business models in which the respective provider of such programs compensates its sales partners through commissions.

These sales partners are recognized by the provider through an identification code, so that every newly registered participant in the affiliate competition can also be assigned to the sales partner. By the way, the person who designs the bridge freely decides which partner program he uses as an exit. We also often find systems that read the participant's origin and device information and thus direct them specifically to different commission programs. Therefore, you can never say clearly which commission program will ultimately be used; in the worst case, you will end up with dubious WAP billing stories or opaque subscription services.

by mimikama.org

The fake counts!

Therefore, the author of Bait and Bridge, who is also likely to be the respective sales partner of the affiliate provider, has a great interest in ensuring that his fake story sounds as credible as possible in advance, but at the same time also has a high potential for virality.

A good lie is therefore half the battle when it comes to fake news and fake competitions.

Both use the same elements and can therefore be seen as related. However, fake competitions are usually designed in a somewhat more rudimentary manner and are also simpler in their presentation, as the pseudo-editorial part is much smaller. This is probably also the reason why fake competitions are much more widespread than commercial fake news.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )