How to spot scams like "Meta - Free Advertising Credit Program"

What is the fake "Meta - Free Advertising Credit Program"?

We have inspected the website and found that it is a scam. This fraudulent page offers a "free advertising credit program for advertisers". Its purpose is to trick visitors into believing that they can receive advertising credits and taking actions allowing scammers to steal personal information.

"Meta - Free Advertising Credit Program" scam in detail

This website presents a fake promotional program offering free advertising credits for Facebook and Instagram campaigns. It claims to provide varying credit amounts based on past advertising spending and encourages users to sign up through social media accounts. The site also uses the Meta logo to appear legitimate.

Clicking the provided button (labeled "Don't miss out, register today!") leads to a fake form that instructs visitors to provide a page name, business (and personal) email address, as well as a mobile phone number. After entering these details, the site instructs visitors to provide their password to continue, which is then sent to scammers.

If scammers obtain a Facebook password, they can log into the account and read private messages, view photos, and access personal details. They may impersonate the victim to send malicious links or scams to friends and followers. They can also try to access other sites that reuse the same credentials.

Falling for this scam can have various consequences, including identity theft, monetary loss, and reputational damage. Thus, this scam website should be ignored.

Conclusion

This website is a deceptive scheme designed to steal personal information and social media credentials. Users risk identity theft, financial loss, and account compromise if they interact with it. It should be avoided. Some examples of other scams designed to steal information are:

"Account Accessed From An Unfamiliar IP Address Email Scam", "Pending Email Release Scam", and "DHL - Shipment Registered To Your Email Scam".

How did I open a scam website?

Users can be tricked into opening scam websites through deceptive emails, notifications from untrustworthy pages, advertisements (or other content) on shady sites, advertisements generated by installed adware, and similar channels. Fraudulent messages received on social media can also be used to lure users into scams.

Additionally, scams can be encountered through websites that use rogue advertising networks. These networks are often found on torrent sites, adult pages, sites offering illegal movie streaming, and similar platforms.

How to avoid visiting scam pages?

Do not agree to get notifications from suspicious websites and avoid interacting with ads, pop-ups, links, and buttons on sites of this kind. Download applications and files from official websites or app stores. Do not click links or open files in irrelevant or unexpected emails or other messages from unknown sources.

Also, regularly update the operating system and applications, and scan a computer for threats using a reliable security tool. If your computer is already infected with unwanted apps, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate them.

The appearance of "Meta - Free Advertising Credit Program" scam (GIF):

Text in the scam:

Free Advertising Credit Program for Advertisers! Verfication
Get free advertising credits for your Facebook and Instagram campaigns!

Available now for Facebook and Instagram

Valid for 7 days, starting from November 13, 2025

Why should you join?
We want to help you boost the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and increase your online presence. Take this opportunity to reach more customers and drive more sales!

Benefits and credits you'll receive:
$50 advertising credit for new advertisers
$100 advertising credit for advertisers who've spent over $500
$500 advertising credit for advertisers who've spent over $1000
$1000 advertising credit for advertisers who've spent over $5000

Why are you receiving these credits?
This is a reward for active and effective advertisers in recent times. You've worked hard, and we want to help you go further!

How to participate:
Simply sign up for the program through your Facebook or Instagram account settings. You may need to provide some verification documents to complete the process.

Don't miss out, register today!
from Meta
Meta Terms of Service Team © 2025 Inc.

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Quick menu:

• What is Fake Meta - Free Advertising Credit Program?
• How to identify a pop-up scam?
• How do pop-up scams work?
• How to remove fake pop-ups?
• How to prevent fake pop-ups?
• What to do if you fell for a pop-up scam?

How to identify a pop-up scam?

Pop-up windows with various fake messages are a common type of lures cybercriminals use. They collect sensitive personal data, trick Internet users into calling fake tech support numbers, subscribe to useless online services, invest in shady cryptocurrency schemes, etc.

While in the majority of cases these pop-ups don't infect users' devices with malware, they can cause direct monetary loss or could result in identity theft.

Cybercriminals strive to create their rogue pop-up windows to look trustworthy, however, scams typically have the following characteristics:

• Spelling mistakes and non-professional images - Closely inspect the information displayed in a pop-up. Spelling mistakes and unprofessional images could be a sign of a scam.
• Sense of urgency - Countdown timer with a couple of minutes on it, asking you to enter your personal information or subscribe to some online service.
• Statements that you won something - If you haven't participated in a lottery, online competition, etc., and you see a pop-up window stating that you won.
• Computer or mobile device scan - A pop-up window that scans your device and informs of detected issues - is undoubtedly a scam; webpages cannot perform such actions.
• Exclusivity - Pop-up windows stating that only you are given secret access to a financial scheme that can quickly make you rich.

Example of a pop-up scam:

How do pop-up scams work?

Cybercriminals and deceptive marketers usually use various advertising networks, search engine poisoning techniques, and shady websites to generate traffic to their pop-ups. Users land on their online lures after clicking on fake download buttons, using a torrent website, or simply clicking on an Internet search engine result.

Based on users' location and device information, they are presented with a scam pop-up. Lures presented in such pop-ups range from get-rich-quick schemes to fake virus scans.

How to remove fake pop-ups?

In most cases, pop-up scams do not infect users' devices with malware. If you encountered a scam pop-up, simply closing it should be enough. In some cases scam, pop-ups may be hard to close; in such cases - close your Internet browser and restart it.

In extremely rare cases, you might need to reset your Internet browser. For this, use our instructions explaining how to reset Internet browser settings.

How to prevent fake pop-ups?

To prevent seeing pop-up scams, you should visit only reputable websites. Torrent, Crack, free online movie streaming, YouTube video download, and other websites of similar reputation commonly redirect Internet users to pop-up scams.

To minimize the risk of encountering pop-up scams, you should keep your Internet browsers up-to-date and use reputable anti-malware application. For this purpose, we recommend Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.

What to do if you fell for a pop-up scam?

This depends on the type of scam that you fell for. Most commonly, pop-up scams try to trick users into sending money, giving away personal information, or giving access to one's device.

• If you sent money to scammers: You should contact your financial institution and explain that you were scammed. If informed promptly, there's a chance to get your money back.
• If you gave away your personal information: You should change your passwords and enable two-factor authentication in all online services that you use. Visit Federal Trade Commission to report identity theft and get personalized recovery steps.
• If you let scammers connect to your device: You should scan your computer with reputable anti-malware (we recommend Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows) - cyber criminals could have planted trojans, keyloggers, and other malware, don't use your computer until removing possible threats.
• Help other Internet users: report Internet scams to Federal Trade Commission.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is a scam website?

A scam website is a site that pretends to offer legitimate services or information but is designed to mislead visitors. It often uses convincing logos, messages, or other elements to appear trustworthy.

What is the purpose of an online scam?

The purpose of such a page is to deceive visitors into providing personal information, making payments (transferring money to scammers), downloading unwanted or malicious software, or taking other actions.

Why do I encounter scams?

Users can be led to scam websites through misleading emails, social media messages, fake notifications, ads on untrustworthy sites, and content served by adware. Rogue advertising networks on sites like torrent platforms, adult pages, or illegal streaming sites can also direct users to scams.

Will Combo Cleaner protect me from scams?

Combo Cleaner scans all websites visited and can identify harmful ones. It also detects sites that host scams, alerting the user right away and blocking access to them.