By Todd Northrop
When a 20-year-old Florida man won a $451 Mega Millions jackpot earlier this month, the first thing he did was post a brief social media post.
Now Internet scammers have mimicked him, and are creating numerous bogus social media accounts in an attempt to deceive people looking for a share of the loot.
Shane Missler won the $451 million Mega Millions jackpot on January 5, 2018, but opted for a lump sum payment of $281.2 million instead of the full amount divided into 30 payments over 29 years.
A Twitter account purporting to be owned by Missler put out a tweet yesterday saying the first 50,000 followers to retweet and like it would get $5,000.
Unfortunately the tweet (archived here) is bogus:
Hey guys! I am the lottery winner of $451 Million. With this incredible opportunity I am giving back $5,000 to the first 50k followers that retweet and like this post. This is to much money and I love helping people!???? pic.twitter.com/pHvqB5Umgp
— Shane Missler (@Shane_MissIer) January 16, 2018
The twitter account @Shane_Missler was only registered on January 15th 2018 while Shane's real account @TheShaneMissler was registered in February 2016. He already used it to put out a warning about fake accounts:
Again, thank you all for tuning in. This journey has only just begun, mark my words. Unfortunately many fake accounts have already circulated. My only active and real accounts are Instagram and Twitter both @TheShaneMissler ???? ?? #GratefulBeyondWords
— Shane Missler (@TheShaneMissler) January 13, 2018
That didn't seem to stop many people from taking a chance anyway. At the time of writing the fake tweet had over 21,000 retweets.
Ironically, around 5,000 of the people falling for the hoax would not get the $5,000 even if it were real, because they failed to follow the fake instructions and "like" the tweet in addition to retweeting it.
Illustrating the insidious nature of social media scams that prey on human nature, the tweet from Shane Missler's real Twitter account warning about the scams has received only around 200 retweets and 1,200 likes.
More and more
The bogus Twitter accounts just keep coming.
Jackpot win of $281M I can't believe it!! ???? Out of generosity I will be giving away $1,000,000 to someone who retweets this. Must be following ????
— Real Shane Missler (@ShaneMissIer_) January 15, 2018
And more:
I’m give $2000 to my first 50k followers! Just RT this and follow me @missler_shane! God blessed me and I’m gonna bless some of you! ?? pic.twitter.com/pliWDvnk9U
— Shane Missler (@missler_shane) January 14, 2018
And more:
I feel like because I have gotten so lucky I should share my wealth with some of you! I would like to get into social media and start doing more things for others please RT & FOLLOW! I will be giving everyone $1000 who does ?? Happy 2018 I am so blessed!
— Shane Missler (@shane_missler) January 13, 2018
Although some may claim that these fake accounts are victimless scams since no money is actually exchanged, the victims are actually all the users of the Internet, who cannot trust anything they read or see. The constant scamming turns social media into a cesspool of bogus accounts and information, and over time greatly increases the chances that one day you too will fall for a scam.
The best thing you can do when you see a social media post like these is to report it using the links on the post, and by all means do not like, share, or retweet the post. Doing so only spreads the foul post to more people.
Which is one of the reasons my Twitter account has been dormant for years!
Could he have claimed anonymously?
If if not he should have closed all his social media accounts and gone silent.
He is not getting good advice.
Mostly they are psychopaths and sociopaths who play with people's weaknesses, needs and sufferings.
with you thamizhpayan. There is evil out there and we must be vigilant.
Todd and his crew are protecting us here at LP. Thank You.
I have never tweeted. I deleted my FaceBook account. I did the same with another Social Site that I cannot recall the name of. I am ready to win!
Not bad, only 96 hours and the fraud has commenced.....Keep that facebook/twitter account open and going young man.....
For the life of me, l don't know why some people feel the need for everyone, to know everything about them. It's no different than some people getting tattoo's. Oh, have you seen my new tat? Who cares! Going on FB- By the way, the family is going on a three week vacation to the Far East- please ransack our home, we need new furniture anyway. People like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison etc, do not go running off at the mouth about wealth & their latest toys. Some winners just need to ease of the publicity gas.
Couple years ago l had my yahoo account vandalized, that's when l shut my twitter & other accounts down. I don't miss them.
Maybe they will learn from their personal experiences and other's experiences.
Which is one of the reasons l am cutting Shane some slack, because of his age. I am hoping he cuts back on this crap as the weeks go by, grows a pair.
Like I said in a previous forum post. This poor child. Yes, child lacks real-life experience to deal with real life nasty people. His life will go down the toilet. I at the age of 20 was very naive about many things.
Shane is now so rich he can buy all the advice and help he now needs.
.
If I'd win something like that, I'd do my move to Californy. The ideal place to live (imho).
I'd make sure it was a gated property.
So, in effect, I'd put myself in jail.
("I'd put myself in jail"?)
Oh please, how can you be so sure that his life will go down the toilet? As for comparing your life at 20 to his, if you were 20 and grew up with Liberace..then yeah!