What Puts Your Social Accounts At Risk, Pt II: Giveaway fraud
This is part two of my two part series on how your audience might be at risk on social media. In part one, we talked about imposters or spoof accounts accounts that crop up that are pretending to be you, and getting your audience members confused and maybe defrauding them as a result. In part two, we're going to be talking about giveaway fraud.
Giveaway fraud. What the heck is that?
You run a giveaway on social media, you follow all the rules, and then the fraudster starts contacting people that have entered your giveaway, either by commenting on your post, or contacting them directly. They tell the audience member, “Hey, I'm contacting you on behalf of so and so and you won! Click a link to claim the prize for such and such giveaway.” Or they might ask for credit card information, or other personal information, or try and get them to click a spammy link.
And then they've got them. They've got your audience member they've just got them.
So what can you do to prevent your dear dear audience without whom you wouldn't have a platform?
First, be very, very clear where the winner will be announced and how they'll be contacted. Maybe in the post original post for your giveaway, but also maybe in subsequent posts.
Will the winner be announced live?
Will the winner be publicly tagged in a post somewhere before they're contacted individually?
How is the winner going to be announced?
Tell everybody!
And number two, consider having some official giveaway rules. This doesn't have to be a super complicated document. It doesn't have to live externally, it can live in your post, if you really want it to. Giveaway rules will say:
How long the contest is open
Who's eligible
What they need to do to enter
How the winner will be contacted and announced
So it's as simple as that! Make clear how the winner will be announced and you might even put a little line in each post in your giveaway saying to beware of giveaway fraud and that you will announce the winner in XYZ way. I hope that helps you protect your precious audience!