Anyone who's on Facebook would surely have come across posts that have images of sick/starving children, animals, elderly people, etc. asking users to like, share and/or type 'Amen' to help alleviate their suffering.
Technology experts say that posts like these are 'like-farming' scams, and are used by Facebook pages to trick people into liking, sharing, or commenting, which in turn results in the page accumulating followers.
The page can then be used to post further scam messages, this time to a much larger audience.
Alternatively, the page can be sold to other scammers via the black market.
The images used in these scam posts are stolen from other websites and used without permission. Simply typing ‘amen’ and sharing the posts will do nothing whatsoever to help the pictured person or animal.
Moreover, when you share these posts, you’re actually doing real harm by increasing their popularity.
So the next time you come across a post of this sort, you would do well to ensure that your Facebook friends are aware of how 'like-farming' scams really work.