Baby products from Johnson & Johnson might be staples in several households, but sadly, the pharmaceutical giant is not giving away free baby relief kits on Facebook. As Hoax-Slayer pointed out, posts of this sort are a scam aimed at baiting Facebook users into participating in surveys.
According to Hoax-Slayer, posts along these lines (unedited) have been spreading on the social network:
Hello everyone …Johnson is giving a way free baby kits as samples
i got one for my baby ..i think this is limited offer and will not stay long time
just wanted to share it with you (link removed)
What happens next? According to Hoax-Slayer:
However, the promised prize is just a ruse to trick you into clicking the link. There is no prize. The link opens a fake Facebook page that includes steps that you are supposedly required to carry out in order to get your free baby kit.
The page first asks you to share the message on Facebook. It then claims that you must post the message on five Facebook groups before you can proceed to claim your prize.
But even after you carry out these steps, you will still not get to claim your prize. Instead, you will be told that you must participate in one or more online surveys before claiming your baby relief kit. These surveys will try to get you to provide your mobile phone number to sign up for SMS subscriptions, ostensibly to allow you to get survey results or go in the draw for various prizes. Or, the surveys may ask you to provide your name and contact details.
Thus, victims may be faced with large phone bills for unwanted mobile phone services. Or, they may be inundated with unwanted promotional emails, phone calls, and junk mail.
Meanwhile, the scammers who created the bogus promotion will earn money through underhand affiliate marketing systems each time a victim participates in a survey or provides his or her personal details.
And, by tricking people into promoting their fake prize post via sharing and posting to groups, the scammers will receive a steady stream of new victims.
Readers: Have any posts promising free baby relief kits from Johnson & Johnson found their way into your News Feeds?Screenshots courtesy of Hoax-Slayer.