Scammers, Oh my!

Today my heart is hurting.

I’ve been hosting an annual Four Seasons of Minis giveaway since 2017. I look forward to it each year, it’s so much fun and the extra entry posts really make me feel like I’m getting to know everyone who participates. The past couple of years, however, we’ve had a problem. Someone will create a new Facebook page using my business name, logo, and cover photo then comment pretending to be me. They’ll respond to comment, telling someone they won, just need credit card information for verification. And people are so excited at the idea of winning something with me that they fall for it. I absolutely abhor that something I do that is meant to bring people closer together, and give someone an awesome prize, has turned into a potential problem.

I recently, FINALLY, got the pages from last year as well as the first set of pages taken down. I reached out to the hosting site for the phishing site they were using and had that taken down. I reported the comments as pretending to be me, pretending to be my page, scam, etc and deleted them.

Then it happened again. Five more pages popped up and started commenting. I reported them, the fake pages, deleted comments, and reached out to the same hosting site again, all at about 9:30 at night because that’s when they struck. My heart broke when someone reached out saying “wait, that wasn’t really you?” I know I did nothing wrong, in fact I’ve been trying to do everything I can to stop it when it happens. However, someone out there is using my name and targeting MY giveaway participants with this underhanded scam. They even put a “disclaimer” saying to be aware of people using their name.

I know I’m not the only person they’ve done this to!

How do you avoid falling for it? I’ll tell you!

1. Click on the name of the page where it commented. If it brings you to a page with no posts, no likes, etc, it’s a dupe.
2. Pay attention to giveaway information! They will usually state when a winner is announced (and how!).
3. Click on the real page by going to the top of the post and contact the page to confirm anything before clicking on a link!
4. Comment on it, tagging the page itself for confirmation.

If you have fallen for this, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. Please please please know I will never ask for your credit card information for verification. I only invoice through PayPal. Contact your bank ASAP and let them know what happened.