Many of the accounts mention well known groups such as Diply or Bored Panda. If you’ve received one of these messages, you’re probably wondering who the people are, why they chose you and whether this is a legitimate opportunity to make some extra cash from your social media account.
Examples of Facebook Advertising Messages
Some of the messages sent include:
Signs This Is a Scam
Although the offer of thousands of dollars seems tempting, there are few problems that stand out:
These users often use the word ‘Dear’, a common greeting among Indian and African English speakers. Many of the messages are written using poor English. Many of the accounts are relatively new, or appear to have only spammy posts. Many of the accounts are removed from Facebook within a short time frame. When pushed for further information, most of the accounts become aggressive and insulting.
And the biggest issue? If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. No legitimate advertiser would offer such large payments to complete strangers without a vetting process. Most online advertisers who do collaborations and influencer campaigns pay rates based on the number of followers, engagement and other statistics.
So, What’s the Scam?
This Facebook scam particularly targets verified pages, but it is likely a variation of the Facebook rental scam. This scam involves companies and websites that have been banned from Facebook advertising manager, using other accounts to get around the ban. Some of the things the Facebook rental scam may do include:
Using your Facebook advertising account to promote spammy content. Using your Facebook account to promote malware or scams. Paying you money which is through a fake Paypal or stolen credit card. Using your account to promote Facebook instant articles and make advertising money.
Facebook Page Rental Scam
Still Want to Try It?
If the offer of thousands of dollars is still too tempting to resist, we recommend you do the following:
Contact the company directly, to check whether the person who contacted you is a legitimate employee. Don’t provide high level Facebook admin access to anyone who you don’t know and trust. Think about the risks involved very carefully; these include lowering your page’s credibility, and having it reported and banned for spam.
Comments
Danyyy23 on August 27, 2020: I just received a email from boredpanda.upfront@gmail.com with the same issue. I also received a invitation from Bored Panda to have acces to his page and to colaborate with him annonymous on August 09, 2020: thanks, your article just saved my fb page! Dianisha Hernandez on July 19, 2020: Thanks for posting this. I have gotten so many messages. I ignore the Facebook messages and now I get them on my Instagram. I got this today from Bored Panda: We have visited your page. It’s perfect for advertisement Here we are offering you for paid sponsored advertisement $2800 per week and all ads will be related to your page. If you’re interested or for more details Please reply us. Thank you! Mayra García on July 16, 2020: Im glad I came across this article. I have been receiving countless amounts of emails and messages through page messenger. Got two from boredpanda Peggy Woods from Houston, Texas on July 12, 2020: There is an old saying that goes something like this: “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is not true.” Paul on June 16, 2020: So greatful to see and read your article on Facebook verified page scams , ive been offered thousands of dollars and its been tempting to accept mainly because no help or warning from Facebook, ive reported a few false accounts, like you mentioned the wording that is used like Sir or boss tells me lots are African or Indian and Facebook get back and say they have not broken any rules , so attempts on fraudulent intentions arent illegal? Some of the accounts are very convincing and leave me questioning myself am i missing out on making great money, but your article is very informative. Only thing not clear is why do they target verified accounts? .thank you for your information Susannah Birch (author) from Toowoomba, Australia on May 17, 2020: Thank you Buglogic, I’d heard mention of emails with this scam, but hadn’t come across them personally. Thank you for sharing some of the content - hopefully more people can be made aware and avoid being scammed. buglogic on May 15, 2020: Great article Susanna! I was forwarded several emails by a friend to see if I could get to the bottom of multiple emails she has received, all promising $600 weekly for ad placement on her Facebook page. She has upwards to 200K followers, so she thought perhaps the offers might have some validity. I cautioned her against responding, then came across your article on a subject that seems similar. Here are the common elements of all the emails she has received: The all come from gmail accounts. Some use boredpandacompany(followed by a number) @ gmail All contain spelling mistakes, even in the subject line! Some common statements in the emails:
We do sponsored advertising, we provide paid and verified Facebook ads, we will provide you ads and you have to place those ads on the side of page and get paid for it
we are looking for Facebook verified pages for our weekly Ad campaign. For this we are offering $600 per Ad
We have visited your page. It’s perfect for advertisment So We want to paid sponsored advertisement on your page.
I hope this is helpful. Keep up the great work! Clive Williams from Jamaica on May 04, 2020: Dear Wrylilt, I can’t offer you thousands of dollars but if you give me a donation that would be quite helpful….Ok this is not a Scam! Nice Info.
