Do you see Christmas offers or free giveaway posts on Facebook? Have you come across your friends updating their Timeline with Christmas discounts and gift vouchers? Beware. They are likely to be scam messages, which could cause a threat to your computer, or might exploit your personal details.

Scammers have always taken advantage of users by posting scam messages, like free gift vouchers, free iPad, win gift cards, and so on. Users on Facebook generally fall for such messages, and share their personal information when prompted to enter.

Sometimes, scammers go through the users’ account and gather publicly available information, and send  phishing emails  to obtain secured information like credit card number and bank details. They create malware programs that are automatically downloaded on your computer, which will eventually help them gain access to credentials like email id, passwords and so on.

Avoiding scams on Facebook is not an easy task. We had earlier posted an article on how you can identify and avoid clicking scam messages on Facebook. Now that Christmas is round the corner, scammers on Facebook have already started posting Christmas offers, which are actually bogus. Some of the scam messages that are spreading on Facebook are

• Merry Christmas! Get Free $200 JB Hi-Fi Giveaway!
• One Free Amazon.com Gift Card (limited time only)
• Get Costco $1000 Gift Card for FREE! (limited time only)
• Boots £50 Voucher Giveaway
• Take the Free $1,000 Walmart Gift Card Survey!
• FREE £170 Worth of Tesco Vouchers
• Eat for Free at Cheesecake Factory!
• Free Airline Ticket Offers
• Free iPad or iPhone giveaway

Do not click on these scam messages if you notice them on your Facebook News Feed. For that matter, if you see any message that has the word “Free” or “Limited Christmas offer” followed by a link, then its better you ignore it.

The scam message Merry Christmas! Get Free $200 JB Hi-Fi Giveaway!is currently spreading on the network. It has the description – In true holiday spirit, we have decided to give away 2000 vouchers to some of our loyal fans!In this, you are asked to share the message with your friends, after which you will be redirected to a page where you will have to complete a set of online surveys.

Almost every scam on Facebook is either a survey scam or a marketing gimmick where you are asked to complete offers in order to qualify for the promotion. Scammers create such scams in order to earn commission. When a user completes an online survey, the scammer will be paid a percentage of revenue as commission.

How to avoid Free Gift Vouchersscam messages?

The best way to deal with scams like this is to simply ignore it. If you’re really interested in offers, then a quick search on Google will definitely help you identify whether it is real or a fake.

Use a bit of common sense. There is no way a company or an organization can afford to give away $50 or $100 gift card. If that is the case, then the company would probably go bankrupt within a week.

If you think that the offer is genuine, then make sure you contact the company officials to verify it. You can either visit their website or contact them via telephone.

Read through the articles written on Techie Buzz. They will definitely help you

• Removing apps from Facebook
• How To Avoid Facebook LIfeJacking Scams
• A list of  Most Actively Spreading Scams on Facebook  that you might want to have a look at.
• Security application for protecting you from Facebook scams

We at Techie Buzz constantly  monitor  for any scam messages spreading on Facebook. Bookmark  Techie Buzz Facebook Scams and keep yourself updated with the  latest scams on Facebook.