You've probably seen one or two of these dubious Facebook pages by now. A free Toyota Hiace Super Grandia if you like and share a post, or 10 Honda Civic RS Turbos if you like and share! An awesome turbocharged compact sedan for nothing, and all we have to do is make a few mouse clicks or thumb taps. What do we have to lose?
As it turns out, potentially a lot.
It's an understatement to say we were wary of these 'promos' from the start. The shoddy grammar might already be a giveaway, but we've also verified that the promos we encountered aren't real. Neither Toyota Motor Philippines nor Honda Cars Philippines have such promotions. For example, the latter confirmed that the page you see above is a hoax.
What about the risk? We asked a source within Facebook Philippines about this practice, and this is what the person had to say: "These sites will try to do some phishing attacks on people who give them personal info in the guise of joining a promo. They then sell the info to marketing databases."
In case you're unfamiliar with the term, phishing is defined by the dictionary as "the fraudulent practice of sending e-mails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, online."
So you're basically putting your online security at risk by sharing a 'harmless' post.
Is there no such thing as a free lunch these days? Not really, but there are still legit promos out there, coursed through the proper media channels and backed legitimately and legally by the car brand. We've featured a family man who won a new Honda MPV through a contest, fair and square.
From now on, be careful with what you like and share. And if it's too good to be true, do your research first.
