Facebook scammers: expert advice on how to stay safe

Mark Zuckerberg's social network has worked hard to fend off scammers, but they keep on coming with the hope of defrauding some of its 1.5bn users

No, you can't win tickets for Radio 1's Big Weekend festival by liking a Facebook page. It's not true that there are free business-class flights being given away by Qantas Air. And no, TV show Total Wipeout isn't bringing a tour to your local city. But all three are recent examples of convincing scams on Facebook where fraudsters pretending to be trusted brands have mocked up pages in search of likes, comments, shares and more from unwitting users.

These scams are a sign of how Facebook is a magnet for cybercriminals who see its nearly 1.6 billion monthly active users as 1.6 billion tempting targets. Facebook scams are the most common online attack method, according to the 2016 edition of technology firm Cisco's Annual Security Report, with 33,681,000 examples identified by the company's researchers - just ahead of JavaScript attacks in its malware chart.