This clever scam has already stolen millions from unsuspecting Americans and is now targeting Australians on popular social networking websites.
Queensland Police have warned Facebook users to be careful of a new fake ‘lottery’ scam that is sweeping the country, targeting ‘weak members of the community’. The latest victim, from regional Queensland, lost over $100,000 to the scam.
Victims reported to police that they were sent a private message on Facebook from a so-called ‘Facebook employee’, congratulating them for winning $7.5 million in the Facebook lottery. As you may have guessed, the Facebook lottery doesn’t exist. The victims were instructed to pay legal and administration fees in instalments of $100s–$1000s in order to access the money.
Victims were then sent surprisingly realistic ‘Facebook credit cards’, carrying the site’s logo. As the last step to ‘unlocking’ the money, they were asked to pay a final fee of $7500. Many did.
Police are warning people to be extremely cautious when receiving unexpected emails and messages on social media. At the end of the day, if it sounds too good to be true, don’t go clicking, or you could be next.
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