Thousands of users are currently being marked under a status message from “Amazon Germany”.
They all allegedly won a voucher worth €750. Can you believe that? No! This is where everyone marked in this way is tricked. We'll discuss exactly what's going on below, because these types of competitions happen all the time. The alleged prices are always different, but the processes are identical . It is therefore important to understand what happens in these fake competitions and how the method works in order to be immune to this process from the start.
It all starts with a status message in which countless users are marked in the comment column. In our example case the status message is:
We would like to warmly congratulate everyone who was linked here - because you were drawn as a winner for an Amazo voucher worth €750!
Click on the link below and follow the instructions!
We congratulate all winners!
Of course, the posting site is NOT the Amazon company, but rather an unknown person who is misusing the name.
The status message is not a real notification of winning, the hundreds of accounts marked are not automatic winners, but rather it is a bait method that is intended to generate as much attention as possible.
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By the way, this marking method is a pretty clever idea, because in this way the organizers of the fake competition avoid possible deletion by Facebook. Ultimately, the status message itself is “clean”. It contains no illegal rules, no spam and the most interesting thing about it: The fake account (in this case a site called Amazon Germany) does not comment on its own status post , but rather they are private accounts that mark masses of users. However, it can be assumed that these private accounts are related to the page that published the status report.
So the trick is: If anything is recognized as spam by Facebook, then it is probably one of these comments, but the fake competition itself survives. Here is a visual impression of such a winning comment under the Amazon status message:
This is a classic bait that is typically used in fake competitions. These baits are all identical in their intention; they tempt you by promising a profit that you basically already have in your pocket. They seduce with the ease of participation and lure people to a website. The bait is the viral entry into the competition process.
Attention!
These comments are intended to draw attention to those accounts that have been tagged here. Logically, as the owner of a marked account you naturally check where exactly you were marked. So the eye falls on the status message above the comment. This status message with the promise of winnings represents the bridge to the actual goal. The bridge appears in the form of a fake competition, where the prize is directly promised, deception is used and fake elements are used (here: Amazon). Ultimately, this bridge is also an illegal component because the promises made are not kept and the structure and presentation uses protected graphic elements.
If you click on the link, you end up on a website that claims to be an exam on the way to winning. This website is part of the bridge and ultimately has only one purpose: it is used to hide links! The link is considered harmless by Facebook and is therefore not blocked.
However, after this theatrical test, the link that is really about appears on this website. You will be redirected to an affiliate competition. Interesting at this point: Our protection software displayed a warning for this built-in link and initially prevented the page from being opened.
For the rest of the process, however, we ignore the warning and end up on a commission program.
So there is not directly the promised voucher, in fact none of the marked people should receive a voucher here. The previous promise of winnings was a blatant lie. This is an affiliate whose content correlates with the fake competition linked 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.
So if you've been tagged...
One thing to remember: If you have been tagged in a comment of this type, you should simply ignore it. These promises of winnings are fake, you are simply linked to a commission program.
However, what remains open at this point: We currently do not know how these markings come about. However, that would be very interesting, because with knowledge of the markings you could protect yourself in advance.
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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 )





