Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2014, and reports news from that month. The fake page’s 8,000-plus participants and the lack of action by Facebook, Google and the brands describe the situation at the time.
Facebook is still doing nothing about it, and users keep falling like flies for this dangerous Facebook smartphone giveaway trap, in which Samsung itself supposedly says it is going to give away hundreds of phones to its users because they have been opened and can no longer be sold.
There are only 3 steps to enter:
- “Share” the photo.
- Click “Like” on the page.
- Comment with the colour you want: pink, white or black.
Afterwards, you are invited to register on a website (which Google should have shut down by now) that imitates the official site of the brand in question. That is where the serious offence takes place: the moment you register your phone, what you have actually done is sign up for a premium service that will bleed you dry with every message you receive.
Until now, people thought the con was only about luring unsuspecting Facebook victims to collect likes for the page, but the fraud being carried out is huge. Right now, the latest “official” Facebook page they have created has more than 8,000 victims posting the colour they want for their smartphone, so a high percentage of them will already have fallen for the scam and will see their phone bill swell next month.
The passivity of Google, Facebook and the brands whose identity is being stolen is inexplicable, since many people are known to have reported this incredible scam.
The company collaborating in this scam is Holland Performance Telecom S.L, a company that has been at the centre of numerous scandals and has so far got away with it.
See also: Some traits make you more likely to fall for a scam
Featured image: Henry William Herbert, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
