If you have a business Facebook page, you’ve probably received one recently. A slew of recent Facebook scams is running rampant as of late, and we’ll let you know how to spot them and what to do about them.
What they look like
These particular spam messages are commonly appearing in the form of direct messages to Facebook business page inboxes. They are often written to look like they are coming from an entity associated with Meta, which is Facebook and Instagram’s parent company. A few we’ve seen include “Meta Platforms, Inc.,” “Meta Business Services,” “Meta Copyright Infringement.”
The messages falsely accuse your page of violating copyright information, posting someone’s work without their permission, not being in compliance with Meta’s policies, etc. They then prompt users to click a link to avoid the account being locked or “banned forever.”
Listen up: it’s spam. Do not click the link. Do not pass go!
But how do you know if Facebook or Meta is actually trying to reach you? You can actually view any legitimate emails sent from Facebook in your page Settings.
Another type
Another of the recent Facebook scams we’ve seen involves tagging. Legitimate business pages will get a notification that their page has been tagged by another page called “Your Page Has Been Suspended,” “Trademark Review” or something similar.
Don’t panic. Your page hasn’t been suspended. This is also spam!
What to do about it
The thing to do about these recent Facebook scams is simple: ignore them. The worst action you can take is to follow through with whatever the message is requesting that you do, thus potentially compromising your page and its information.
Another thing you can do is to report the offending page as spam. A little spam reporting effort may go a long way in preventing someone else’s page from being compromised—and stopping scammers in their tracks.
Facebook offers a few guidelines for dealing with spam on the platform, which includes reporting anything that might seem suspicious.
In a “nutt” shell
These recent Facebook scams are designed to trick you into thinking someone important is contacting you to pass along news of a potential threat to your page, but don’t buy it. This is not how Facebook communicates with its business page users.
We look out for our clients to ensure the security and integrity of their digital assets is maintained. Think you need help sorting the spam? Send us a message!
McNutt & Partners is a full-service advertising and digital marketing agency. Contact us today for your marketing needs! Call 334-521-1010, or visit our contact page.
