Fake BMW Giveaways on Facebook

Facebook pages with hundreds of thousands of shares claim to be giving away a BMW to five winners. These pages and their giveaways are completely bogus. Today we’ll take a closer look at this trend.

Let’s first take a look at a screen shot of one of these phony BMW giveaways from the Facebook page Best Cars:

The text above reads:

We are giving 5 BMW CARS On March 20 , 2014
5 Lucky Winners Will Be Announced On March 15

Step 1) Like our page.
Step 2) Comment which color you want.
Step 3) Share On Your wall.

Good Luck to everyone !

There are no BMW’s to be had because this giveaway is not real. Similar fake giveaways have been circulating for years, such as the fake Camaro giveaways last fall, which nearly identical features:

• The page was created recently
• The giveaway has several edits, with the date constantly changing
• After several thousand likes, the page disappears
• No winners are ever announced
• The pages do not identify themselves in any way

Edited Posts

The fake BMW post shown above was posted on February 18, 2014. Notice that it shows the word “edited” next to the date. Clicking on word “edited” shows that the phony giveaway has changed the date several times, as seen below, where the date was originally February 28, but changed to March 20. This keeps the fake giveaway going indefinitely.

Violation of Terms

While legitimate companies do offer promotions on Facebook, fake BMW giveaways like these violate section E of Facebook’s Page Guidelines, which state a page must post official rules, terms and eligibility, and acknowledgement that it is not associated with Facebook. Requiring users to share a photo or status is also a violation of these guidelines.

Why do they do it?

Why would someone bother running a fake promotion, especially if they aren’t linking to a website of any kind? We have found that the most likely reason such fake promotions are created is to simply build up a Facebook page with massive amounts of likes. These pages are then sold, renamed, and all traces of their fake promotions are deleted.

What to do

If you see one of these fake BMW promotions on Facebook, report the page or the post as spam/scam. You can also drop a link to this article in the comments.

Bottom Line

Fake giveaways promising a variety of prizes are increasing on Facebook. There is no prize to be won, and liking or sharing these pages will do nothing but create more spam and phony giveaways.

If you see one of these fake BMW giveaways, drop us a link in the comments below.