As our digital world increasingly relies on AI, identifying scams, especially on Facebook, is becoming more challenging. Scammers are finding new ways to access your profile or financial information, from job scams to lottery scams, investment scams and product scams that promise but don’t deliver. Over 62% of Facebook users encounter scams on a weekly basis — the highest out of any social media platform. A few things to watch out for are comments hosting fake giveaways, quizzes with personal information, remote job scams, fake fundraising campaigns and hacked accounts from family or friends. Here are some ways to identify possible spam comments and posts on Facebook.
How to spot spam comments:
- It’s a newer page with few friends or followers. Click on the account in question and look for posts uploaded by an account with a newly created page because they are often scams. Look at the number of friends or shared photos to help determine if it is a scam page.
- Duplicate captions. Copy the text in question and see if other accounts have posted it. Highlight some of the text and paste it into Facebook’s search function at the top of the page to find others like it. If there are posts with identical or similar text, but different images, it is likely a scam.
- Multiple profiles of the same person. If you notice a Facebook profile with the same name and profile picture as yours or a friend’s, it doesn’t necessarily mean the account has been hacked. Instead, scammers have likely created an impersonation account, a fake profile designed to mimic the original one, often for malicious purposes like scamming or phishing.
- Comments urging action. If you receive a message or see a comment from someone you don’t know, verify the person’s identity and claims before taking action. Ignore and block any comments or posts with strange website links requesting personal or nonrelevant information (emails, phone numbers, passwords) that go directly to the scammer.
- Repeat messaging. Scammers will often follow up with messages if you ignore them. It is best to report and block them. Spam accounts may post the same comment multiple times across different posts or profiles, indicating automated or scripted activity.
- Unusual language. Spam profiles and comments often use broken English, odd phrasing, or excessive emojis, which might indicate that the profile is not genuine. The comments may contain vague, unrelated or overly generic phrases like “Great post!” or “Check this out!” that don’t add value to the conversation.
Facebook has resources to protect you and your account from Internet scams and hackers. Click here for ways to manage spam on Facebook. It is best practice not to interact with a post or comment that could be spam. Stay vigilant when identifying spam posts because it makes all the difference regarding your Facebook and/or personal information stored on your device.