Outline
Message claims that the manager of the BMW Marketing Group is giving away a brand new X6 via Facebook. The message instructs users to like the manager’s Facebook Page and share the promotional post for a chance to win the car.
Brief Analysis
The message is not from any BMW marketing manager and the claim that a BMW X6 is being given away is a lie. The image used in the scam message was stolen from elsewhere and depicts Peter Kronschnabl, president of BMW India, at the car launch in 2009. The Facebook Page is a like-farming scam designed to fraudulently accumulate large numbers of Page likes and further promote the Page via post shares. Pages with high like numbers can be sold on the black market or used to perpetrate further scams or dodgy marketing campaigns.
Example
Hello Facebook!
My name is Kevin M.James.
I am the manager of BMW Marketing Group and I own 12 BMW’s.This is one of them, a brand new X6.
Guess what? I will donate this x6 to one of you.
All you need to do is to like my fanpage and share this post with your friends.
The winner will be selected randomly (28, February 2014) and he/she will receive the car within 7 business days.
Note: Don’t forget to ‘LIKE’ and ‘SHARE’ otherwise you can’t be selected.
Good luck!
Detailed Analysis
According to a post that is rapidly gaining momentum on Facebook, the manager of the BMW Marketing Group, identified as one ‘Kevin M. James’, is giving away a brand new BMW X6 to one lucky Facebook user. The message claims that all users need do for a chance to win is share the message with their friends and like the Facebook Page that the message originates from.
However, the message and the associated Page are fraudulent and the claims in the message are lies. The Page is certainly not giving away a BMW X6.
The Page is a like-farming scam designed to trick as many users as possible into clicking the Page ‘like’ button. And the fake giveaway post further promotes the scam Page by tricking people into sharing the promotional material with all of their friends.
Pages that have accumulated high numbers of likes can subsequently be sold on the black market to other scammers or reused to engage in further scams and ongoing spam campaigns.
The image used in this scam post was stolen from other sources and does not show a BMW marketing group manager called Kevin James. Instead, it depicts Peter Kronschnabl, the president of BMW India, at the launch of an X6 in 2009.Like-farming scams such as this are extremely common. In fact, there have been several similar scam campaigns that have falsely promised free BMW cars and other luxury car brands to people willing to like and share on Facebook.
Be very cautious of any message or Facebook Page that claims that you can win an expensive prize just for liking and sharing.
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
