This is an example of one fake Facebook account sent to stickybottle. Profile photos of cyclists or young women are used, apparently to encourage fellow cyclists and/or male users accept their friendship requests. Notice how the latest post on this has 30 people tagged. It means the image can appear in the Facebook feed of every Facebook friend those 30 users have.
Over the last couple of months we’ve received emails and messages from countless Irish cyclists reporting that they have been inundate on Facebook with spam.
Most of it seems to be for counterfeit sunglasses, with copies of the cyclists’ favourite, Oakleys, the most frequent material flooded onto riders’ Facebook feeds.
In recent weeks many of the messages we’ve received have reported a heavy flow of fake friend requests from accounts posing as Russian, Australian and Asian users.
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One club cyclist who contacted us said he received 19 such requests in one day while another said she received more than 30 in a week.
The fake Oakleys scam seems to be a pretty simple one.
Those looking to spread the word about sites offering apparently fantastic deals on the glasses set up fake Facebook personal accounts.
In many, but not all, cases they use a cyclist as their profile photo and then go about sending friend requests to other – genuine – Facebook users using cycling related photos as their profile pictures.
And they also send friend requests to the friends of those people using photos of themselves in cycling kit, or other shots related to the sport, as their profile pictures.
A huge number of Irish cyclists have been accepting these friend requests, with the spammers appearing to focus on Irish Facebook users of late, specifically those with cycling related profile photos.
And once the fake accounts have achieved a volume of friends over a period of time, they then go about endlessly tagging those friends on photos advertising Oakleys at huge reductions.
The adverts and the accompanying links to the sites where the glasses can be purchased then appear in the Facebook feeds of all of the friends of the users who have been tagged.
An example of a cycling-specific advert for fake Oakleys spamming the Facebook feeds of many Irish cyclists at present. If the discount is too good to be true, it generally isn't true.
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If you are misguided enough to click onto the sites and make a purchase, you’re taking your life – certainly your money - in your hands.
Messaging forums are full of stories of money having been spent via credit cards, with no glasses ever arriving. Or if they are sent, the products are of very poor quality even for counterfeits.
But even if you don’t make a “purchase”, this spam can be very bad news.
Links can also lead Facebook users to sites where participating in a survey is presented as a means to securing a free pair of glasses.
However, any interaction can result in your Facebook user information being collected or to the spreading of malware.
Clicking on the links or entering any information onto “survey” sites can also result in your Facebook account being hijacked, leading to the account being used to spam your friends or to leave fake comments.
The increase in recent fake friend requests appears to be part of the same online behaviour, though may not necessarily be linked to the fake Oakley spam advertising; it might relate to other products.
Some cyclists who have contacted us have reported ignoring the fake friend requests but have kept an eye on the accounts that sent them.
Stickybottle readers have reported no sign of activity to date on those accounts aside from the accounts racking up more and more friends, a large portion of whom are cyclists from Ireland, or certainly with Irish names.
So if you receive any friend requests from people you don’t know or from accounts that clearly look fake, it is best to decline them and report the accounts to Facebook.
And if you are tagged as part of a spamming effort, don’t interact with any of the links included. Instead, report it to Facebook.
Some of the fake accounts are so poor that even a brief look at them will satisfy you they are not genuine.
Many will have only been set up in recent days or weeks and there will be no activity on them apart from the uploading of a profile photo. However, in other cases more effort has been made.
Posts that look genuine will have been posted, with comments left by other apparently linked fake accounts.
But some of the posts and comments date back some time and the accounts might trick even the vigilant. So it’s best not to interact with anyone you don’t know.
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