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Fake Apple Giveaways on Facebook

December 30th, 2012 | 58 Comments

A relatively new trend on Facebook finds new pages cropping up, promising free Apple products to anyone who likes and shares their content. The problem is, they are completely bogus.

We’ll look at a couple of examples among the dozens, if not hundreds, of phony “giveaway” pages out there, as there are variants in their approach.

Version 1
All of of these “giveaway” pages will encourage you to like and share the page or photos they post. In many cases, the are really just funneling unsuspecting visitors to a bait-and-switch “sponsored offer” page. Take this page - called Freegiveawayiphone5 - for example. They ask you to:

Step 1) Like our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/freegiveawayiphone5 .
Step 2) Share this photo.
Step 3) Complete the steps from our website http://iphone5.claimtheprize.net/ .

When you visit iphone5.claimtheprize.net you are asked (again) to like and share the page, after which you are then presented with a series of hoops through which you must jump – while the elusive iPhone is never really given away. No winners on this Facebook page are ever announced, nor do any supposed winners post that they’ve won in the comments.

The page itself has no identifying information, other than the “claimtheprize.net” website they promote. It should also be noted that this particular page was created on November 20, 2012, and claimtheprize.net website was created two days later. Both were created barely over a month prior to the writing of this article. This is more evidence of a fly-by-night operation.

Generic – and anonymous – Facebook pages like this are fishing for likes and shares with the empty promise of free Apple products.

Version 2
Other pages, such as this one, called FreeAppleProductsGiveaway, appear to funnel users to other similar Facebook pages – all while collecting likes and shares for their photos. Notice that it has the exact same cover photo as our first example. They ask you to like another Facebook page, called iPhone5GiveawayContest, which is newer (created 12/20/2012) and basically the same as the others. Though this page did list “winners” last week, it’s likely that those names are either fake or merely friends/admins of the page. We couldn’t find or verify the posted profiles. It’s also possible that the “winners” were merely referred to a sponsored “rewards” program, which is certainly no prize.

Do you really think there are this many pages giving away free Apple products? Of course not!

Don’t be a pawn in the endless liking, sharing, and proliferation of such scams on Facebook. And the next time you see someone liking or sharing such drivel, post a link to this article in the comments to set them straight.

And while you’re at it, follow Wafflesatnoon on Facebook to keep up with all of the latest hoaxes, rumors, scams, and news as it happens.

The popularity of Apple products makes them enticing bait for scammers and spammers alike. Take, for example, this article from last summer, where a similar text-based scam was spreading: The Free iPad That Isn’t Free

1/4/2013 Update
A Facebook user sent us a link to yet another one of these “giveaway” pages today. That particular page is https://www.facebook.com/AppleProductsGiveaways. It links to a blogspot page which appears to be an extension of their Facebook page. Our response included these points to consider: