what the hell is going on ? Merle Butler lottery instagram giveaway?

[Hshhsjas Sadas]

so on instagram this couple who won the lotto two years ago is "giving" away 1k to anyone who shows support for his wife who is very ill . so the accounts name is @merlebutler and hundreds of people are reposting the somewhat of the chain letter that explains what the couple claims to be going on. So i look up her name and the couple did the lotto two years back , but on "her" or whoever is really on theres instagram, they posted a short video of the transactions made online of 1k as of todays date, like in the paypal transaction format, .So what the hell is going on , is this just some sort of fraud , everyone seems to just be going along with the flow and so far veery few people are skeptical about this besides me. The instagram even has a picture of oprah winfreys twitter saying to follow her @merlebutler for a chance to win 1k, someone commented claiming they went to oprahs twittwer page and digged for the twitter posts and she didnt have that post. im honestly confused right now, has anyone heard anything about this, go look it up for yourselves ? reply back to what you think ??

[Lycenae]

I just saw this as well. Idk, man. I'm gonna look at it more but I can't imagine it being real. Wouldn't it be on social media like Twitter? Who knows. Hoping it is though, I have a hefty car payment I'd like settled..

[Fred]

Of course it is a scam. It is unlikely they are a couple who had a win. How are they going to pay? Obviously they will want your bank details to transfer money to your account. OR OUT!!! Do not let greed switch off your brain.

[Kristi Nichole]

He won two years ago and the photo on his page on IG is photoshopped to 2014 when he really won in 2012, ASSUMING that is him which is highly unlikely. Its a scam of course just like those NIKE page scams giving away a pair of shoes or the Oprah one and the list goes on and on. Sad part is I have so many friends on IG reposting it smh.

[Jenny]

Honestly I dont even think it is "Merle Butler" It could be some random person behind the screen trying to like scam you and take all your money out of your bank account.

[Yahoo user]

It's a new type scam.
As the Nigerian scams are old by now.

[895]

Well if you click his 'accountant's' page, they ask for 99 cents as a postage fee or something along the lines of that. Despite the fact that they won two years ago, THAT was my big red flag.

[Edwin Reyna]

These social media "giveaways" have made it very very easy for scammers to dupe thousands of people into publicly posting their emails.

FB friend of mine posted something similar...but it was purported to be from "Robert and Tonya Harris" - a Georgia couple, who did win a jackpot back in 2008.

And that Oprah Picture? The one that appeared to be coming from her twitter page, supporting that lottery giveaway claim....1,000% fake.

Any tech savvy person can change the text of any website and take a screen shot of it.

Look what I did in a mere minute: http://imgur.com/iYwiJa4

No photoshop - just some quick coding.

Always be wary.

[Domenick]

Now he wants .99cents for postage... fake! Think about it! Over 100,000 people all paying .99cents


Great scam!