Spammers, Scammers & Fake Accounts: How to Fight Giveaway Fraud

Tackling the Spammers

Some entrants will spam prize draws with dozens of comments, usually just with a tagged name. The motivation is greed: they won’t engage with non-giveaway content and rarely add any other value to their comments. In some cases, spammers tag their own fake accounts, as well as accounts pretending to be their family members, businesses, or even pets! This certainly isn’t in the spirit of tagging a friend to let them know about a great competition.

Rewarding spamming actively harms a brand’s marketing efforts. If an entrant is only tagging their own fake accounts, they aren’t spreading the word about the brand to new, potential customers. Not only is it unfair to genuine entrants, but it defeats the purpose of a competition, meaning the promoter is giving away a prize to someone who has made no effort to spread the word to genuine potential new fans!

Without access to IP records, it can be difficult to prove an entrant is logging in and out of multiple accounts, but adding a couple of lines to the T&Cs can certainly discourage this behaviour. It’s also highly recommended that ‘last comment wins’ or ‘comment with no likes wins’ competitions are avoided completely. These are stressful for the entrants and heavily encourage spammers.

Before contacting the winner, check their entry was valid and their account looks genuine. It’s incredibly disappointing for genuine fans of a brand to see a prize awarded to a dog, a child or even a rental cottage!

• Only allow a limited number of comments per person (e.g., “To enter, leave one comment tagging 2 different friends. Any further comments will not be included in the draw”).
• Run an effort-based competition where participants have to leave a thoughtful/researched answer to a question, or post an original photo. Spammers want to rapidly enter, so anything that slows them down will act as a deterrent.
• Include an “Only one entry per household” clause to discourage people entering on behalf of multiple family members
• Include a “Third-party entries will be disqualified” clause, or to be crystal clear, use: “Entrants who make an entry on someone else’s behalf will be disqualified.”
• When choosing multiple winners, ask winners to confirm their full name and address details (look for suspicious similarities in case the same person has won twice)

Scammers Impersonating Winners

This is a situation where an impersonator claims the prize before the genuine winner has been in contact. This problem mainly occurs with digital voucher prizes (like Amazon) which are emailed to winners. A brand announces a winner’s name and asks them to get in touch. Then a scammer immediately sets up a fake account using the winner’s name, messages the promoter to claim the prize, and the voucher is sent and redeemed immediately. Then when the genuine winner gets in touch, the brand becomes confused because they have already sent the prize. 

If this happens to a brand, they should still give a prize to the genuine winner. It’s not the winner’s fault they lost their prize to a scammer – the blame lies with the brand because their prize promotion was not CAP or GDPR compliant!

• Never rely on a single social media mention as a method of notification.
• Contact winners privately via DM before making any kind of public announcement (announcing a winner’s name or username without giving them the chance to object is a breach of GDPR laws)
• If you’re unable to DM them because of their profile settings, reply to their comment and ask them to DM you. When you receive their DM, visit the profile – then come back to the winning comment and follow the profile link there – check it is the same profile link before you reply or send the prize! 
• In the message, ask them to confirm they are eligible for the prize (e.g., UK based, 18+) and check if they are happy for their username/name to be announced as the winner. Ideally, ask to see a copy of their passport or driving licence (tell them to black out any numbers – all you need to see is that the name matches their Facebook profile). This private messaging process means scammers won’t have the opportunity to sneak in a claim.

Scammers Contacting Entrants

This is where a giveaway is targeted by scammers who pretend to be the promoter, then send private ‘Congratulations, you’re a winner!’ messages to the entrants, asking them to complete their details on a fraudulent form (usually asking for credit card details).

• Make it very clear on the original giveaway post how and when winners will be contacted.
• State clearly: “The winner will be contacted by DM before 1 June from THIS account only – please do not respond to any other accounts claiming to be us.”
• If someone flags up a scammer, report the account to Meta immediately.

Stolen Content and AI Entries

Plagiarism or the use of AI to enter a competition is rife. Some entrants use Google search, while others screenshot other people’s photographs to pass off as original. Others will generate entries for creative competitions entirely using AI tools.

• After selecting a winning entry, use Google Lens to see if the image appears elsewhere online.
• Include a clause in the terms: “Entries must be your own original work. Any entries generated by AI or altered using AI tools will be disqualified.”
• If there is any doubt about a winning photo being genuine, the entrant should be asked to email the full-resolution original image for verification.

Winners not randomly chosen

Many brands don’t choose a winner fairly, which means spammers gain an unfair advantage simply because they leave more comments than genuine entrants. Never cherry pick a selection of comments to go onto a ‘spin the wheel’ for broadcast – all comments should go into the initial randomiser tool. 

• Use a random picker tool (such as Comment Picker) to choose fairly. To reduce the chance of spammers winning, select the option to ignore duplicate names so each entrant goes into the draw only once (ensuring this was clear in the T&Cs)
• Record the draw process, and if you want to share it, do this after you have contacted the winner (because they need to be given the chance to opt out of publicity)

Voting fraud

A public vote is not a good way to decide a worthy winner of a competition. It opens the floodgates for dishonest behaviour, with some entrants buying votes, incentivising votes, or creating fake accounts to vote for themselves (or even to frame their competitors for fraud!)

• Use a judging panel to decide winners based on set criteria (there should be at least one independent judge)
• Choose a random winner from all eligible entries (my personal preference is to award one judged prize AND one random prize, which keeps everyone happy!)