What actually constitutes a fake competition on Facebook?
It's shocking how successful fake competitions on Facebook actually are. This summer is characterized by more competitions than ever before and in such a short time.
Nevertheless, users diligently take part in such fakes, even though the advertised prize doesn't even exist. A fake competition contains some features that quickly reveal it as a fake.
The Facebook page Caravan 2018, for example, is currently running a competition based on a typical pattern:

This month the world's largest camping trade fair is taking place again in Düsseldorf. On the occasion of the event we are giving away a Hymermobil B-Class Modern Comfort 580.
How to take part:
Write us a comment about where you would most like to camp
and send us a message using “Caravan” (Messenger)
share this post
If you like our campaign, let us know and tag our “Caravan 2018” page one1 winner will be drawn from among all participants! The deadline for participation is Monday, August 20, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. (CET: UTC+1). We will contact the winner via a personal message. Of course, the competition is not connected to Facebook. Legal recourse is excluded!
The fake competition
Take a real or fictional occasion and tell the user that there is something great to be won on the occasion of these great events.
The criteria for participation are quickly listed:
- Leave a Comment
- split
- like
- send personal message
Sometimes a deadline for participation is added, but the competitions are usually deleted before this deadline.
To ensure that there are no actual winners, they should be contacted via personal message. If the fake is successful, a new competition with a different prize will be created within a very short time. It doesn't matter whether you were able to win a car before and then a dream house...
The main thing is that users interact or follow a link that actually has completely different purposes.
Note: Typical indicators are also such promises - “press I like it and it will be added to our lottery pot!” and “whoever shares the post has a double chance!” and very important “the page – name-of-page – must be liked”.
What does a serious competition have to offer?
A competition run by a reputable organizer must be transparent. Key features:
- Site owner/contact person
- imprint
- Contact option
- Conditions of Participation
Reputable companies deal with the topic of competitions on Facebook and present them correctly. Among other things, reputable organizers ensure that an imprint, a contact and conditions of participation are available, which are also necessary from a legal perspective. But be careful, because every now and then the organizers go to the trouble and invent legal notices.
It is therefore worth researching the information provided.
In the case of Caravan 2018 you can see the following information:

That's it - no information provided by the organizer indicates a lack of seriousness.
What else can happen
Note: Why is/was there this competition? Of course there is a financial interest behind these sites. There are various ways in which you can profit from successful fake competitions. Everything is possible, from harmless page sales to nasty subscription traps.
So far, we have seen a lot of fake competitions that these types of competitions are always very similar. In the first stage, they seduce with their simple participation. You should share and like a high-quality potential win. Anyone can do it, it's not a hurdle. This attracts people.
Possibility of “side sales” / “like farming”
With the help of these attracting events the site is then “bred”. The site operator is working to increase fan numbers. At a certain point, this site will be for sale. Fans just end up wondering what content they'll see after the sale and why they ever liked that page.
“Affiliate” option
Once the number of participants reaches a certain point, the description of the competition will be changed. The conditions of participation are supplemented and a link is usually included that you should visit. There are some affiliate programs waiting there through which the “organizer” collects commissions.
In the harmless case, these are partner programs that provide the participant with a lot of advertising; in the extreme case, there is a WAP billing subscription trap hidden behind the link for visitors via smartphone (from which the organizer also collects commissions, of course). Every now and then you can find these sophisticated Facebook pages for sale on eBay.
No matter what else happens: the advertised profit doesn't exist! Therefore, remember: there is no one giving away this house, this mobile home, this Audi, 100,000 iPhones or 50,000 PS4s. No, they don't exist, these chivalrous benefactors of the Internet. They are more like tricksters who entice their users to eat out of their hands like click animals.
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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 )

