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New viral Facebook scam is tempting users with non-existent Facebook Credits

Molly McHugh
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new facebook scam offers thing doesnt exist anymore goes viral anyway fb credit header
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sometimes it feels like there are more Facebook scams than users, and a new one has already snagged 70,000 victims and counting. According to the Bitdefender Hotforsecurity blog, users are seeing a post advertising 5,000 free Facebook credits if they take part. The message attached reads: “This is how all the professionals do.. They use free software to add free credits to their accounts..So they can win all the time,” with “goo.gl” URL following.

fb credit scam screenshot
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The first red flag here is the horribly-written message. The second is that Facebook Credits were killed off in September; they no longer exist as the social network’s form of currency and thus you cannot generate one of them, much less 5,000.

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The credit generator Facebook scam is of the likejacking variety, so the speed with which it can take over not only your but your friends’ accounts is alarming (and likely why it’s already claimed 70k Facebook users). By signing up for the free credits, users are really just promoting these scam pages and the faulty Facebook Page attached to them. Scams related to free Facebook Credits have been incredibly popular in the past, though it should get harder for this variety to succeed given how … the currency no longer exists. 

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Bitdefender says its Safego app has been busy blocking this thing, so if you don’t trust yourself not to click the tempting offer (is it though?), consider signing up for Safego. Otherwise, keep an eye out and avoid the scam. And remember, there’s no such thing as Facebook Credits anymore, so we should all be smart enough to let these credit-based likejacking scams die out. No Farmville victory (can you win at Farmville? I am unsure …) is worth it. 

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Molly McHugh
Molly McHugh
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…
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