A veteran of Internet fraud are the so-called fake competitions. What happens if you take part in one?
Be it the wrongly packaged iPhone , a play tower for children , the dream vacation or a Mercedes or Audi ... if you stumble across competitions on Facebook, it is most likely a fake.
Why do we know this so exactly? On the one hand, we can look back on a long wealth of experience when it comes to fake competitions and, on the other hand, not all competition providers think so far ahead that some users may not necessarily just comment with “participation”.
So, with a slight smile on our lips, we received the following message:
Hello Mimikama!
Last week I put your article in the comments at one of these great car competitions. This is what I got in response yesterday:Dear... ...
Unfortunately you didn't win the Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe in our competition.
However, you are on the shortlist, which is why we would like to inform you about second place today.
Secure the opportunity and get second place: A Mercedes-Benz A-Class!
Participate here!
-> http://bit.ly/a-klasse-zweiterplatz After you have taken part, write to us “Done” so that we can take your participation into account.
Don't forget to confirm your email so that your participation is valid.
Best regards,
your Mercedes-Benz social team
An answer like this taken out of context makes some people think. So what do the creators really want with such competitions?
The fact check
This fake page with a fake competition serves as an example: Audi RS7
If you take part in a competition, you will receive the following answer via private message:

Why? Because the link to the external website where you should leave your data can be quickly filtered by Facebook in the status post and the fake page is shut down in no time.
In order to preserve the lifespan of these fake pages, we simply use private messages.
Some time later you receive this message:

From now on the spamming really starts. Again and again we find ourselves as losers, the winnings are not claimed, but there is now 3 times the chance of winning - to simply keep the user on board. As we all know, hope dies last and you want the fake competition to be shared as often as possible.

This goes on for weeks - no prizes, no winners, but constantly new fake competitions.

After a while we noticed that the site no longer exists. She is now listed in the chat as a “Facebook user”. However, it does become active from time to time. So they revive the site and call themselves something else. E.g.: Mercedes Benz E or Audi RS7…

Why all the trouble?
The fraudsters are primarily after personal data or want to lure the user to an affiliate program.
“Side sales” option
It is important to the site operator to get as many “likes” as possible. So he is working specifically to increase the number of fans.
At a certain point, this site will be for sale.
The fans just wonder at some point what content they will see after the sale and why they liked this page.
Relatively harmless, things get uncomfortable when the site targets so-called “affiliates” when the number of fans reaches a certain level.
“Affiliate” option
From a certain point onwards, the description of the competition will be changed.
The conditions of participation are supplemented, usually a link is inserted that you should visit. There are some affiliate programs waiting there through which the “organizer” collects commissions. In the most harmless case, these are partner programs that give the participant 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!
Be careful when it comes to putting your personal data on the Internet. Don't be fooled! First think – then click!
3 steps
Such competitions take place on three levels. See also the fake Phantasia Land competition . 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.
The 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 a profit that you basically already have in your pocket. They convey the ease of participation and attract people to a website. This is the bait . The bait is the viral entry into the competition process.
Step two is usually a website that pretends to be a competition with a question and answer session. This round of questions is not necessarily always present because, on the one hand, it is irrelevant and is only intended to simulate the nature of a competition. We also call this step two the bridge . The bridge appears in the form of a fake competition. In this bridge, you are usually promised the prize directly, there is deception and fake elements are used. Ultimately, this bridge is also an illegal component because the promises made are not kept and the structure and display 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) a link is installed that should lead to the supposed prize
The 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.
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 )

