Attack of the Facebook Clones: BBC Rip Off Britain
Consumer Champion, Television,
The new series of BBC Rip Off Britain kicks off this week and once again I’m helping to shine a light on the digital shams and scams that have been plaguing viewers across the country.
Such as this one, where Facebook fraudsters buy or cultivate pages with thousands of likes, then rename the page and clone their victim’s shopfront before defrauding their customers:
It can be difficult for shoppers to know which pages are real and which are fakes.
For this film I created an almost identical clone of the BBC Rip Off Britain Facebook page within a matter of minutes. It's also a challenge for owners of Facebook pages who feel can powerless to stop scammers ripping off both their business and their customers.
My advice for Facebook page owners - and for visitors to those pages - is to look out for Facebook verification badges. These grey or blue ticks alongside the profile name indicate that the page has been vetted by Facebook, with official documentation provided in some cases, and can reasonably be expected to be the real deal. Page owners can request a grey tick by following Facebook's verification process.
To find out more about this - and other digital rip offs - tune in to BBC1, weekdays 9.15 to 10.00am or watch on-demand on BBC iPlayer.