Seen a Facebook competition for a chocolate hamper? Don’t engage with it – it’s a SCAM
As Christmas draws closer, more and more dodgy money-making schemes turn up on the social media site
THOUSANDS of Facebook users could be falling prey to a chocolate hamper scam costing them hundreds of pounds.
Money saving pro spotted this dodgy competition on the social media site and angrily shared it with her half a million followers.
It advertised a delicious-looking chocolate hamper which people can get their mitts on by following a set of instructions.
Ashleigh wrote: “I have spotted this scam which is just one going around on Facebook right now.
“It may look harmless but it is far from it."
The competition is actually from a fake page called and has a whopping 95,856 fans.
There isn't any official information on the Facebook page.
The scam, which was put up on October 12, offers a GIANT chocolate hamper if you 'like' and 'comment' on the competition as well as 'share' the offer.
Ashleigh warned: “These scam pages rely on you liking their page so they can later bombard you with scam website posts (which they have already started doing as you can see).
“By interacting with these scam companies they can then see your Facebook profile.
"If you have a mobile number they can access that to sign you up for premium rate text messages.
“I have heard from people who have fallen for these scams and were charged hundreds of pounds for premium texts in one day.
“Other cases have seen a lot of the entrants contacted to be told they are the winner. The scammers have asked for the entrant's bank details so they can cover postage of their prize.
“This has then resulted in large amounts of money being taking from the 'winner's' bank account.”
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The Chocolate Hamper account is breaking Facebook's competition rules which state that you are not allowed to ask users to share a post as a condition of winning a prize.
The Sun has reached out to the Chocolate Hampers page, but it has yet to comment.
This is not the first time Facebook users have been caught out by online tricksters.
Furious parents discovered a Paw Patrol page was fake after shelling out for worthless theatre tickets.
Ashleigh has some tips to avoid getting scammed by these competitions.
She recommends: “See how old the competition page is. If it was only started three days ago then the likelihood of them giving away hundreds of pounds of prizes is very slim.
“Check if the page is genuine. I have seen scam pages pretending to be Boots, River Island and even Disney World - check for the blue tick.
“If the page has fake news stories, such as Justin Bieber dying on stage, the site is likely to be run by scammers.”