Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Try Not to Step into the Free TOMS Shoes Facebook Scam

TOMS logoContrary to what spammers want you to believe, you cannot score a free pair of TOMS shoes on Facebook.

The scam starts off like any other one has – you’re minding your own business, catching up on the latest from your friends via Facebook’s News feed when suddenly you come across a post advertising the offer for a free pair of TOMS shoes.

Now, the actual message and URL may vary since cybercriminals want to minimize the chances of Facebook blocking their junk offers, but the overall idea remains the same:

Grab free TOMS shoes spam
Free Toms’, For LIMITED TIME!
grebfreetoms.info

For the next 24 hours ONLY! Grab your NOW!

Since you happen to be a fan of TOMS shoes, you click the link and you’re redirected to a page on grabfreepair.info, which asks you to share the offer and like it in order to attract new victims (by exposing YOUR Facebook friends to it like your friend had done to you) and help the scam spread. 

TOMS shoes share offer page


TOMS shoes scam pageAfter sharing the scam with your friends, you will be redirected to another website, tomsshoes.oursuperoffersnow.com, which will ask you to select a color, size and enter your email address.

Now, this is where you should really pay attention. There is a huge block of text at the bottom of the page that lists the requirements you must fulfill in order to score this “free” pair of TOMS shoes:
Eligible members can receive the incentive gift package by completing two reward offers from each of the Silver and Gold reward offer page options and NINE reward offers from the Platinum reward offer page options and refer 3 friends to do the same. Various types of reward offers are available. Completion of reward offers most often requires a purchase or filling a credit application and being accepted for a financial product such as a credit card or consumer loan.

So much for being “FREE”, huh? At this rate, you’re better off just locating a store near you that sells TOMS shoes.

If you see a friend advertising this Facebook scam, feel free to mark the post as spam by clicking the ‘x’ at the top of the page. You may also want to let your friend know that it is a scam so they can pass the word on.

Did you fall for this scam? Take a moment to remove any posts advertising this scam from your profile. Oh and keep an eye out for other scams that are likely to hit an inbox near you.

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