LEE COUNTY, FLa. — Scammers on social media are targeting local businesses in Southwest Florida. The healthy earth organization is planning its first free community event, Meet Santa, in Naples. Their only concern is that someone set up a fake Facebook page and began using the event to collect money from other businesses!
Falon Tabares is the nonprofit CEO; she says the fake profile contacted several companies asking them to participate in the event and send them cash payments.
The nonprofit says they do not use social media to contact businesses for events. Tabares says she knows at least one person that lost money to the scheme. But people can avoid becoming a victim using just a few steps
"Any nonprofit organization will have their EIN number on their on their website. You can go to the IRS website and under nonprofits, look that nonprofit up by that EIN number, and they should have all that information," she said.
Facebook says they removed more than three billion fake accounts in just five months. People who suspect they were a victim of a similar scam can report to the local police departments.
