It’s a typical day on your favorite social network. You see that one of your friends has commented on a photo you can see. You notice that this photo has over 30,000 likes, and more than 100,000 comments. Another 7,000 plus people have shared the amazing photo. There’s an instruction to type the number “1” into the comments space “to see what happens to the image.” In the example I show you here, the photo is of an enormous sinkhole in the middle of an urban landscape. Who wouldn’t be curious what might happen to the image? So it’s not that odd that so many people have apparently followed the instructions.
As you know from reading my blog, NOTHING happens when you type the 1 or click “like” or type “jump” on any of these photographic posts. They are static images. So why does anyone post these messages when all that happens is people are disappointed or fooled? The fans of this page have monetary value. That’s right, those 30,000 “fans” of this page are worth something to advertisers.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the page (see below) on a different website where the author of this photo scam offers to advertise “anything” as long as it’s not abuse or illegal. And the price is pretty low, only $5. If you are ever irritated by the low-quality stuff being advertised to you in your social network, maybe you only have yourself to blame.
One final thought: when you see posts like this pop up in your news feed, don't click "like". Report it as spam and help end this scammy stuff. 