That’s right – fans!

This page on Facebook promises a great summer offer - 20 Dyson Pure Cool air filters that are just waiting to be given away!

If you believe it... the competition doesn't seem very dubious:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

How do I recognize such competitions?

Fake competitions of this type can be recognized by typical indicators: “Press like and you’ll be added to our lottery pot!” and “Whoever shares the post has a double chance!” and then “The page –name-of-the-page- must be liked! But the announcement via personal message also screams fake.

However, it is an important feature if the following content is NOT AVAILABLE:

  • Site owner/contact person
  • imprint
  • Contact option
  • Conditions of Participation
  • Exemption from Facebook

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.

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

However, no effort was made in this competition for the fans. Here you can see in the info tab that there is no information whatsoever.

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 )