Scammers have been around long before the internet existed. At least back then they were obligated to scam you face to face. These days they have the ability to hide behind their screens and conceal their identities. Their ability to work in the shadows combined with the accessibility the internet offers makes it one of the best times in history to be a scammer. As such, there are potential threats to each of us personally and our businesses lurking around every corner, waiting for an opportunity.
It seems that we have been talking and warning people about the infamous Business Manager scam for several years now.
Sadly, it’s not going away. If anything, this scam is getting more elaborate and more sophisticated. Over the last twelve months, it is still been the most popular way fanpage owners lose their properties. This method is the main and most effective tool in the scammer’s toolbox, and it has evolved into different versions.
What is the Business Manager Invite Scam?
The scam revolves around the Facebook Business Manager, which is a tool any Facebook user can use. It lets people share and control access to ad accounts, fanpages, and other Facebook assets. Business Managers can see all of the Pages and ad accounts they work on in one place, without sharing login information or being connected to their coworkers on Facebook.
A Business Manager can also request ownership of any page, and if such a request is accepted it is irrevocable, and the new manager will trump the rights of any previous admin.
The image above is an example of what a real Business Manager request looks like. In this example we have used LoL as the name of the manager but, a real scam will use a more elaborate name to trick you into accepting the invite.
If you grant access via this method, you will immediately lose control of your fanpage and you will not be protected by the new 7-day admin removal rule . In fact, it is so bad that you won’t even be able to remove yourself. The new admin will have a “Page Owner” tag next to
They will have total and complete control. They will have the ability to remove all admins with a click of a button and your chances at page recovery are almost zero.
It looks so realistic!
At first glance you may be saying to yourself — “I would never fall for that” . We thought the same thing until we had acquaintances have their pages stolen via this method.
Before exploring all of the new scams below, watch this guy lose his 160K Facebook Page and then tell us that you’d never fall for it. Everything within this video seemed 100% legit and he lost everything with one click of a button. Now that you understand how serious of a threat this is and how easily it can happen to you, review all of the other Business Manager scams and be on the lookout.
New Business Manager scams:
Page verification scam
This method uses “Facebook Verification” as the Business Manager name, which makes it look like Facebook wants to verify your page and give you the coveted blue verified badge.
Obviously, this is a scam, and this is not how verification badges are awarded, but if you aren’t familiar with how the verification process does work and the corresponding conversation line up correctly, you could easily click a single button a lose your page.
Fake like removal scam
This method often starts with a message that gets sent to your pages inbox, and it will state that you need to “allow the invite in order to remove fake likes, failure to comply will result in page removal.”
Then you will receive an invite from “Verify Your FanPage” as the Business Manager name that will come with an official-looking Facebook logo (usually with a shield) next to the name (in the place of the Facebook flag seen in the image above).
If you click the accept button, you will lose your page forever.
Upgrade your account to business manager scam
This method is the most popular among scammers, but it only works when the scammer knows the address of your personal profile.
The way the scam works is you first receive a message from an official-sounding account related to Facebook staff (FB Staff/Facebook Security/etc…).
The message will state that “Your account and fanpage are eligible for a Business Manager upgrade. To accept go to your fanpage Settings, then click Page Roles and accept the request.”
The trick here is that the scammer will register a Facebook profile with your name and copy your profile photo. When the Business Manager invite is sent to you it looks like you are upgrading your own account.
The invite will say:
- A business manager wants to access your page.
- Business account name: Your own name & Photo.
This method is extremely simple, but effective. Especially for those with personal brands.
Anyone with a decent fanpage probably receives countless messages like — “I will give you 100,000 USD for your fanpage, please add me…”
Rest assured that you won’t get paid 100k for your page, the scammers simply want to locate your personal account so they can copy the name and photo so they can try the scam on you.
The best advice anyone can give is to stay vigilant and don’t message untrusted individuals from your personal accounts.
Keep your eyes open, don’t make hasty decisions, and if you aren’t sure about a particular action, research it first. It’s likely that it’s not the first time that scam has been run and someone has probably talked about it openly on a blog, news site or on YouTube.
If there is any doubt, contact us and we will do our best to take a look at your situation and help in any way we can.
– Article by @austinlawson.
