Outline:
Circulating Facebook post claims that you can get a chance to win five all inclusive Royal Caribbean cruise tickets to any location just by sharing the post and liking the associated Facebook Page.
Brief Analysis:
The post is a scam. It is not associated with Royal Caribbean in any way and there are no prizes. The purpose of the fraudulent post is to gather as many Facebook Page likes as possible in the shortest possible time and then either use the page to launch further scams or sell it on the black market to other scammers.
Example:
500 People Will Be Winning 5 All Inclusive Royal Caribbean Cruise Tickets to Any Location On Us (Ends on March 13 2016)
To celebrate the launch of our brand new Cruise Liner we’re giving 500 people a FREE Royal Caribbean for 5 people for a date and port of your choice. Want to win? Just share this post to enter then Like Our Page, winners will be posted here on the 13th of March.
Detailed Analysis:
According to a post that is currently being shared across Facebook, you can get a chance to win five all inclusive Royal Caribbean cruise tickets to any location in the world just by sharing said post and liking the associated Facebook Page. The post claims that winners will be announced on the Page a few days hence.
However, the post is a scam and the claim that you can win cruise tickets just by sharing and liking is a lie. There are no prizes and the post and associated Facebook Page are not connected to Royal Caribbean in any way.
The purpose of the bogus Page is simply to gather as many likes as possible in the shortest possible time. By tricking people into sharing the fraudulent material to all of their friends, the scammers ensure that the scam post is seen by an increasing number of Facebook users. As a result, the fake Facebook Page will quickly gather a great many new likes. Offering valuable prizes such as cruises as bait is a surefire way of tricking many people into participating in these like-farming schemes.
Once a Facebook Page has accumulated a goodly number of likes, it can then be reused to perpetrate other scams, this time to a considerably larger audience. Often, the next step after a like-farming campaign such as this one is to use the same page to launch a survey scam designed to trick people into submitting their personal information on dodgy survey websites.
In some cases, the now like-laden Facebook Page can be sold on the black market to other scammers who will subsequently adapt it for their own fraudulent purposes.
Like-farming scams like this one continue to be very common on Facebook. Despite widespread publicity about such scams, they continue to gain new victims every hour of every day. Be wary of any Facebook post or Page that claims that you can win valuable prizes just by liking and sharing. If one of these scams comes your way, don’t be tempted to participate just in case. Don’t foster the nefarious goals of these scammers by liking, sharing, or commenting on their bogus prize posts.
Last updated: March 11, 2016
First published: March 11, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
Royal Caribbean Australia ‘Win A Cruise’ Facebook Scam
Royal Caribbean International ‘Vacation Package’ Like-Farming and Survey Scam
Facebook Like-Farming Scams
Facebook Survey Scams
The Case Against ‘Just in Case’
Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/facebook-scam-promises-royal-caribbean-cruise-tickets-to-any-location/