“For those who have not saw yet. LIKE THIS PHOTO for a chance to win a million dollars! I will be giving 1 million dollars to 20 people! Make sure you like my page and post on the wall why you feel you should win. Brad Duke’s 20 million dollar giveaway contest,” the posts distributed by scammers on Facebook read.
As Hoax Slayer highlights, Brad Duke did win the lottery back in 2005, and he helped many people. However, he has nothing to do with the messages making the rounds on Facebook and he’s certainly not giving away any money to random people.
Instead, the scammers want to trick internauts into liking their Facebook page and help them spread the scammy messages. Once their page is liked by a large number of people, they can sell it on the underground market or repurpose it to advertise shady websites or products.
While many users might think that no harm could come by simply liking a page, they couldn’t be further from the truth.
That’s because those who fall for such tricks are not only helping cybercrooks make money, but they’re also contributing to making the Internet less safe. People who share posts and access websites promising shocking content are also more likely to fall for 419 scams, or install malware on their computers.