Visit Duluth Warns of Facebook Scam

It seems new scams pop up every week involving people being targeted on Facebook so it comes as no surprise to learn there's yet another new scam this week. This one involves the Visit Duluth Facebook page.

Visit Duluth alerted people about this scam Wednesday on their Facebook page. Similar to other scams, what is happening is that a fake account called "Visit-Duluth" has been set up and is now requesting to be friends with many of the followers of the legitimate Visit Duluth page. If the request is accepted, potential scam victims will get a message claiming that they've won a prize and they must follow instructions to claim that prize.

Before we get into that message, there are things right off that bat that hopefully clue people in that this is a scam.  First, the fake page is called "Visit-Duluth". The real "Visit Duluth" page doesn't have a hyphen. Second, Visit Duluth is a business page and they will not send out friend requests. Lastly, Visit Duluth says they would call or email any winners of the contests they run.

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The scam message that is sent also raises several red flags. Here's the message:

CONGRATULATION!!

You were selected as the winner
for our prize draw
Grab your prize now before I
declare your prize expired.
FAST FAST get your prize now.
Reply (READY) when you
are ready.

For starters "CONGRATULATION!!" is obviously not proper grammar. As you read the message further it is full of other bad grammar examples and awkward things like "FAST FAST get your prize now". These are the types of things that scam messages often contain.

However, sometimes people look right through obvious grammar mistakes when the thought of winning a cool prize enters their mind.

The bottom line is whenever you see a Facebook friend request from a local business or organization, ignore it. If you want to follow that business, reach out to them and verify they are actually Facebook and what their legitimate page name is.

Also, if you get a message claiming you've won a prize, even if there aren't obvious grammar mistakes, do not follow any instructions or click on any links to claim your "prize". You can always contact the business directly via phone to see if they're even running a contest. Chances are, they are not.