That’s why Facebook is currently being swamped by fake profiles

The scam is both insidious and dangerous: thousands of Facebook users are currently getting friend requests from friends whom they actually know. But the profiles are fake – the photo has been brazenly stolen from a friend’s profile and the name copied. Sometimes the name might differ in one letter from that of the “real” friend.

So what’s it all about? The hacked profiles are used to link their friends to photos of glasses which refer to supposed special offers. Behind these lurk a link to online shops which, at first glance, might appear to be professional, but, in reality, are actually phishing sites. The bait currently being dangled is for cheap Ray-Ban glasses.

How to recognise fake offers
It’s becoming ever more routine to buy glasses on the Internet rather than from a local retailer, says Phil Thomas, vision specialist at the online optician Edel-Optics. But to make sure you don’t wind up on such phishing sites, you should pay attention to a few things.

The price shouldn’t be too low. “You can’t get a pair of Ray-Ban glasses for less than €50, the seller would never make a profit on it,” says Thomas with the confidence of a man who knows. Fake sites also often don’t have a proper legal notice, and the texts are riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes.

In addition, the glasses in the shop should always come with a model number, a colour number, and size details. The model number begins with RB, followed by four numbers. The colour number is slightly more complex. This can consist of a combination of up to six numbers and letters. “If you aren’t sure, you can compare it with the official Ray-Ban website,” advises the Edel-Optics expert.

Potential buyers should also be wary if they are offered only a limited number of models because the Ray-Ban product portfolio contains several hundred different models. Equally suspect is when payment in advance is the only payment method offered. In general, an online shop should offer at least four or five different payment methods.

A common scenario with fraudulent sites is that you must first register in a portal to get the discount. Reputable retailers only ask for addresses or registrations when you actually buy from them.

Ray-Ban is also one of the bestsellers of the online retailer Edel-Optics. “Everyone knows them and everyone has a pair, from celebrities to everyday people. This is no doubt one of the reasons why there are so many fake Ray-Ban glasses around,” explains Thomas.

www.edel-optics.co.uk

In 2009, Edel-Optics Ltd. started out as an online optician and retailer for brand glasses. By 2011, the company entered multichannel trading by opening its first local store in Hamburg. Due to great success, Edel-Optics set up a flagship store in Northern Germany’s largest shopping centre (AEZ) in 2013. At the moment, Edel-Optics operates web shops in 53 countries from their headquarters in Germany, and has already dispatched glasses in over 120 countries. In total, Edel-Optics’ portfolio offers over 40,000 brand name glasses.

Katharina Kath
Edel-Optics GmbH
c/o Publiplikator GmbH
Königstraße 2, 14163 Berlin, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)30 – 200 898 28,
Email: kath@publiplikator.de

This release was published on openPR.