This sucks!

Two people in my Good Vibrations Sweepstakes Club Facebook Group (GVSC) got scammed.

Sadly, this was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time as the group has grown substantially.

Be Aware

As I have been hosting contests offering extra entries if entrants join my Facebook Groups, I have been letting in many new people. I vet the requests to join as well as possible, but it is the Internet, after all. My intuition said, “We need to start being careful.” I did post a warning in the group requesting all members keep their eye out for anything out of the ordinary, scammy, spammy or unethical.

Being Notified

A few nights later I began to get notifications. I got several messages from a club member that they were scammed by someone within the group. As I was responding, I got another notification. It turned out two members had been scammed.

What happened?

A long-time and trusted member of the GVSC offered a free PS5 in the group, and all you had to do was pay for shipping. That should have been a red flag right there. It turns out someone saw that red flag and reported the post, as per my request, but as I cannot monitor the group 24/7, the scammer deleted the post before I saw the alert. By then, it was too late. two members had fallen for the scam and sent this person funds. Hopefully, their banks or credit card companies will reverse the charges.

After further investigation, it turns out, that the member offering the free PS5 was also hacked. This is why they were trusted in the group. The scammers are getting better, so we must become more vigilant. In the end, there were three victims.

It Takes a Village

Here is what they do. The scammer hacks someone’s Facebook account. They then have access to their profile, marketplace, groups, etc. They post something to fool people and get them to send them money. You are able to report the post to the admins, but the scammers in all of the Facebook groups are ‘smart’ and turn off comments to the post right after they post it so that no one can comment and point out the scam. They then ‘like’ their post just so that it gains traction and gets seen by others. The only way around being unable to comment would be to react to the post with the ‘angry’ option vs. ‘like’ so that others will be weary about it. If everyone who comes across a suspicious post, marks it with an angry emoji and reports it, it will also be noticed faster by the admins and deleted. It will also serve as a warning to others.

Protect Yourself

What can you do? I use an encrypted password created in RoboForm. I also have two-factor authentication turned on. The harder it is for scammers to get into your account, the less likely you will get hacked. You can check on the site Have I been Pawned? if your password has been exposed. I have been slowly changing all my duplicate passwords to unique ones and RoboForm lets me know if my password has possibly been compromised.

Moderation

I will be adding a moderator, or two, to the group as we have passed 1500 members. It’s the only way to keep up with everything being shared.

A big thank you to the group members who helped me piece this mess together and share the warning(s) with everyone.

Have to ever fallen victim to a social media scam?