The Shameless Ads on Facebook

I'm sure everyone knows that the ads that you see on Facebook are directed to you specifically based on keywords that you use on your profile, photos, etc. But aside from the CIA data-mining, this is not the worst thing Facebook does. For me, it's the most shameful ads on Facebook; these "Grant Check" scams and Google Ad money games that are bating college kids and people unfortunate enough to really suffer during these tough economic times.

I guess this blog is to warn those desperate folks out there who think it's legit because it is not. If you click on one of those tempting ads telling you how easy it is to make 5 or 10 thousand dollars from Google or from government stimulus checks, you'll notice a few things.

1. All the websites are exactly the same. It has a green header with some headline about how "Josh" or "Jake" or "Steve" or "Kevin" made $5,000 from Google or some stimulus check. They tell their story about how easy it is and how much their life has changed. It's a little suspect that all the sites look the same but it could be just a form of design congruence from the person who set them all up. But the thing that really sent me over, as I looked at these sites, were the comments – they too are all the same.
2. The checks are obviously photoshopped. You'll notice on the check photo they use that a) it's the same photo on every site, and b) the name on the check has been photoshopped (poorly at that) to match different people.
   
   
   
   
3. The actual people are fake. In one, Kevin Hoeffer is a firefighter and father of three and recieved a check for $5000 from Google. In another ad, he worked at a manufacturing plant and has no kids and received a check from the federal government for $12,000. And the same pictures of him are used. How stupid do they think people are?
   

It really pains me to know that there are people out there suffering from the fall of the economy. But it infuriates me to know that other people are somehow profiting off their suffering.