There’s a warning for consumers about scammers using social media with misleadings ads for sales that claim to offer discounted name brand products.
Chris Babin, Business Administration Manager with the Better Business Bureau of Acadiana, said, “They’re putting ads on social media advertising deep discounts on name brand products, and when you click on the ad, it’s not bringing you to the actual website to purchase the product and they’re stealing credit card information and personal information.”
The Better Business Bureau of Acadiana says these misleading sales ads can appear on any social media platform.
Facebook and Instagram are the two most prevalent.
“It’ll pop up as an ad. They have different ads on Facebook and social media that are advertising these deep discounts that you’re probably not going to get otherwise and when you click on it, you realize that it’s not an actual discount,” explained Babin. “It’s not legitimate.”
When you click on the (fake) ad, it’ll bring you to a website connected with that ad, but it’s not actually legitimate.
It’s built to steal your information.
“So a lot of times when these websites are associated with businesses and stuff overseas, what they’ll do is pretend that they’re selling you a name brand product and you’ll get something in the mail, but it’s not actually the name brand product. It’s a counterfeit,” added Babin.
These scam social media ads offer retail clothing or shoes. There’s no actual company behind them.
Babin said, “Some of the ads we’ve seen are for Doc Martens, North Face, UGGs, was one of the ones we’ve seen recently. They’re reporting 90-95% off to click on this ad and what you can do is go to that actual website for that brand and see if you’re able to find some of those discounts, which in some cases maybe you can find a good discount, but I wouldn’t necessarily trust the ad leading it to you.”
In other versions of these scams, the fake sites can download malware onto your computer and give scammers access to your personal information, password history, and more.
Here’s some tips from the Better Business Bureau on how you can avoid fake sale scams:
Know where you shop. Be wary of purchasing items online from retailers you are not familiar with
Beware of off-brand URLs. Scammers often register domain names that are similar to popular sites.
Look for a secure connection and a privacy policy when browsing sales on the internet.
Use your credit card so it’s not tied to your bank accounts.
For more information from the Better Business Bureau, click here.
If you have a scam you’d like me to investigate, feel free to send me an email at smasters@klfy.com.
