A number of fake Facebook customer support lines
are reportedly scamming customers in the US, and a similar trend appears to be
emerging in Australia.
Unlike many prominent information technology
companies, Facebook does not have a dedicated customer support phone
line, and instead only provides support through its online help centre.
Unfortunately, many
Facebook users do not know this and are being tricked into calling fake support
lines with the belief they are contacting Facebook.
According to NPR, the top result in a Google
search for “Facebook customer service” is a false customer service line. When a
customer calls this number, a call centre operator pretending to be from
Facebook provides the caller with “support”.
Except, the
“support” provided involves directions for the user to go and buy an iTunes
gift card voucher, and provide the false Facebook representative with the
activation code.
This is a common
online scam that is used as a way to extort money from unsuspecting victims in
an untraceable way. Apple warns against this scam on its website,
noting iTunes gift cards can only be used to purchase goods from Apple’s online
store.
According to Google
data, the term “Facebook customer service” is searched for more than 1,300
times a month in Australia. NPR reports that similar data in
the US shows the term is searched for more than 27,000 times.
Throwing the term
“Facebook customer service Australia” into Google reveals a phone number as the
first result, with Facebook’s legitimate help centre as the second. The third
and fourth results also claim to provide support to Facebook customers via
phone.
