Woman Who Fell Victim To Facebook Pop-Up Ad Warns Of Scammers On The Platform
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The holidays are supposed to be the most wonderful time of year until a scammer dampens your holiday spirit.
Scammers are ramping up their trickery as Christmas approaches.
And Facebook has become a preferred social media platform for scammers, as Jessica Walker found out when she fell in love with a robotic cat toy called "Ebo" advertised on Facebook.
"It was an easy purchase, I thought," Walker said.
After her purchase, Walker received an email but something didn't seem right.
"It wasn't spelled properly. It didn't sound right. So at that point, I started doing the research," Walker said.
So Walker, who works at home for a pharmaceutical company, put her research and computer skills to work when the email didn't come from "Ebo" and the view your order link went blank.
"They went to the Kickstarter site and stole the pictures and videos and launched the scam," Walker said.
Walker said a fake company through the Facebook pop-up ad mocked the real company, including product pictures.
The fake product also was getting a lot of attention on Facebook.
"There were a thousand comments on one of them and most of them were tagging people saying they wanted it for Christmas," Walker said.
Walker tried to report the scam to Facebook, but she did not have much luck.