iPad 2 Give Away Hoax for Sharing Photo and Liking Facebook Page

Story:

Lakshmi Menon:: I have got 193 pieces of iPad 2 that can’t be sold because they have been unsealed. Therefore we are giving them away for free.

Want one of them? Just Share this photo & Like our page and we will choose 193 people completely at random on 4th of October and winners will be posted here.

Good luck!

Analysis:

This is a Facebook post that comes along with a picture showing a group of iPad 2 boxes claiming to give away 193 pieces to random Facebook users who share the picture and like the page.

The picture along with the message was posted on a purportedly official Facebook page of Lakshmi Menon, an upcoming South Indian movie actress. The message says that she (or he) has got 193 pieces of iPad 2 which cannot be sold as they have been unsealed. She claims that she will be giving them away for free – to random Facebook users who share the photo and like her Facebook page. She also mentions that the winners will be announced at a later date. However, that does not seem to be the case here.

Picture of Lakshmi Menon — Lakshmi Menon

Firstly, the Facebook page claiming to be that of the actress Lakshmi Menon cannot be established – as the account is not verified by Facebook. So we cannot be sure if it is the actress herself posting it, or any of her fans. The picture shown in the message is at least three years old and has been used in various websites – for marketing purposes. As such, the iPads are not unsealed. Then the edit history of the Facebook post suggests that the same post is being modified in the recent past again and again. The Facebook post was originally shared on 18 Sep. 2013 and the date of disclosing the winners is postponed again and again. No wonder why the post of the (supposedly) female actress got thousands of shares. This clearly says that the claim is a hoax and there are no iPads to give away for free. The message is simply a marketing technique to generate likes for the Facebook page.

People are advised not to fall for Facebook liking and sharing scams like this. As you can read here, this is a very common technique of scamming people on Facebook.