This has been going on for a quite some time now and I’m still seeing people falling for it, so I thought it was time to do a write-up about it and what you can do to keep safe in the future.
If you’ve been to this Facebook Page: facebook.com/WetherspoonsFans then I would highly suggest changing all passwords. This page appears to be be “following the rules” in that they have marked the page as Satire on the about us page, but they’re still making out that they are the real deal when they post.
The problem with this is that if enough people believe they are real and share the post, others will undoubtedly follow the trend without doing their research. The first thing to do in this instance would be a quick google to see if you can find the official Facebook page. Upon performing a quick search, I actually found this page: jdwetherspoon.com/news/2021/03/fake-social-media-accounts where Wetherspoon’s have actually taken it upon themselves to try and make the public aware. They actually made a statement at the bottom of the page to say they don’t use social media:
“But what has this Facebook page done wrong?” I hear you ask. Well, you’ve undoubtedly seen that they ask you to like, comment and oh, click that Sign up button on their page.
Most of you will see this and instantly thing “That’s a scam”. If you did, you’re correct. Notice below the button that Facebook very kindly show the URL that’s behind it; on this occasion it’s “offer.getoffernow4u.com”. If I was to show you a phishing URL, that would be in my top 10. If it doesn’t look like the official domain, don’t click it. I would highly suggest blocking the page and perhaps even reporting it as a scam page.
I’ve completed some additional research; performed a quick WHOIS which didn’t provide much as the domain owner has their information redacted so I went ahead and contacted the abuse@ email address to report the scam. I’ve also reported the domain to Google Safe Browsing (GSB) and have had the redirect removed from the URL shortening service they were redirecting to.
I don’t doubt that they’ll keep creating new ones but just be vigilant, and report any pages you suspect are scamming people.