Wild Adventures Ticket Scam

Kenzie James
ECB Publishing, Inc.

ECB Publishing, Inc., Greene Publishing, Inc. and Riverbend News were recently notified of scams related to their Wild Adventures tickets giveaways.
The newspapers post new giveaways every week on their Facebook pages for readers to enter for a chance to win a pack of tickets to the theme park in Valdosta, Ga. The winners are announced in a separate post from the contest announcement, but some readers have received congratulatory messages in the comments section of the contest announcements.
These comments came from scammers and not the newspapers. Greene Publishing first announced the scam on May 5, telling readers that their office does not comment the winners in the comments section. Riverbend News' first post about the scam was May 10, and called attention to the false Facebook page that looked similar to Riverbend's page. ECB Publishing posted about the scam on May 17, sharing that the scammer was also using a false Facebook page.
ECB Publishing and Greene Publishing posted announcements about the scams again on June 4 as a reminder to readers who enter the contests. ECB Publishing said in their announcement that they do not send winners links to claim the tickets, which is what the false messages did.
“It has been brought to our attention that there is a group pretending to be us, posting that people won in the comments on our Wild Adventures giveaways. Please remember, our office does not comment winners in the comment section,” Greene Publishing's post said.
False messages may look similar to the two included below:
“Congratulations! You are the winner free tickets to see Secondhand Serenade in concert at WILD ADVENTURES! Please complete the last three steps to claim the prize
register now here: https://greene-publishing-inc.myfreesites.net
come back here and send the “done” message
once completed, send us proof of your registration
Good luck!”
“You are the winner! Let me know you have seen this comment by replying, Before we announce your name, please complete registration to confirm your identity, register here https://greene-publishing-inc1.myfreesites.net “DONE” after your registration is complete.
The links included in the messages lead to false registration pages that ask for the reader's personal information and credit card information for payment.
“We will never ask for your personal information or payment information for Wild Adventures tickets. The tickets are free, so we have no need for that information,” Riverbend's post on May 10 said.
If you receive a message similar to one of these in the comments section of a giveaway, report it as spam and do not click on the link. ECB Publishing, Greene Publishing, and Riverbend confirmed in all of their announcements that they do not send links to claim the tickets nor do they announce winners in the comments section.
Riverbend said one way readers can verify the identity of the Facebook page is to look at the number of likes and followers the page has. Readers can also compare the link in the message to the link to the business' website to compare the URL for legitimacy. Another way to verify the identity of the messenger for any kind of scam is to check the grammar, spelling and punctuation, because errors can be identifiers that a scammer is attempting to pose as a legitimate business.