Should I call it.. Ad-buse? | Lithium's Note

Facebook has a big problem concerning ads right now... or rather even long before now.

I'll be just quick on this post as part of my challenge to myself.

As you can see above, a particular screenshot from "GMA Network (Philippines)" with the face of former President of the Philippines (behind the news anchor) Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (in which, I believe, was filing a certificate of candidacy if her political background is concerned) was used in a sponsored post by a certain "Special Grant" that is linked allegedly from inbirthday.com.

If you click on the link without noticing the source, plus you're among who have the hate against the former president and wanting to know what this is all about that she might be brewing for "another corruption" thing (or perhaps you thought it's the anchor who made "A microphone blunder" on a live broadcast and got curious about it), it will redirect you to 👇🏻THIS👇🏻.

Allegedly a SPECIAL REPORT in which "Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's Latest Investment Has Experts in Awe And Big Banks Terrified" that is posted by... CNN Philippines? (I was expecting that it should be GMA News's article, but a lot is going on here on the very top page.)

Anyways, if you already came across this kind of site, you can surely say that it's a scam. And you're right.

What's more, the article is not a news but more of a copy-pasted scam script of a particular "cryptocurrency" that's doing their fishing method waiting for fishes to take the bait and get us hook, line and sinker. To further point things down without scrolling further down the page, there's actually a working site they used like its as if their own. I don't know much about how it works (codes, scripts and links), but once the actual site loads, just a second or less, that article above will load over the actual page (which I STOPPED before it changes).

Below is the screenshot of the actual page (and people knowledgeable on how website works can agree that it really is the site's legit page).

Note:

As I wrote this blog post of mine, I just discovered that this is not actually the official site of Stick Mobility. Down below is their homepage that was copied by crypto-scammers.

And below is the original site's product page.

See the difference?

Take this post of mine as a caution on such scam that has been on the rounds in different sreenshots but same content.

But what's... uhhm, "fascinating?" (Is that even the proper description for that?) Anyway, the point is, these scammers can get through our newsfeeds in a much more easier route that Facebook seems doesn't give an eye and a proper sitting to eliminate this. (Seems, I say, since they do block links when reported by users when proven violating guidelines.) And that is via Sponsored posting.

It'll be too much to tackle this, but the point of all of this is that they can fool people (or netizens) just by paying for sponsorship, and Facebook seems not making actions about it. They do sending surveys whenever they think it's about time, and personally I might change answers from seeing Facebook as safe place to "about to be unsafe place" because there's no person or two, I suppose, that would just click the link and see for themselves whether or not the sponsored post is safe.

And before you would think I'll never use the site or the app anymore, no. Neither will I make a cursive statement against the company just because this happens. I only wish this abuse of using Advertisement would reduce (or much better, be stopped) so the rating of safeness of the site would increase again. After all, without them, admit it or not, there'll be no connection between people across the globe. Perhaps we'll still remain struggling paying for IDD than paying for data or modem. Probably knowing revolutionary things unfold in social media would only remain limited to where they sprouted.

Now, to conclude my post, I want to again warn everyone from this eye-catching, title-intriguing article by a sponsored post should it land on your newsfeed in Facebook. Even if it's the influential or controversial person you know, take a look on some things before clicking...

• Is it from a legit source? (Like, is inbirthday.com actually the site of articles? Cause the site name doesn't make sense.)
• Is the image incorporated legitimate as well?
• Is even the one that sponsored the post the right page or profile to post it? (Like those who post death hoaxes and fake news while using the thumbnail from legit sources.)
• And if you happened to click the link (just hope that you never did land on a phishing page asking for your credentials), did the link match the legit site?

For Facebook... I hope there are people who can sit at least 4 hours to review first sponsored contents before letting them loose on their site.

That's all for me now. Be safe, everyone.