If you have a successful Facebook page, watch out for this podcast event scam that will offer you $2,000 – $5,000 for your time, and then steal your page after a Zoom meeting. After that, it’s very hard to get your page back as it’s nearly impossible to speak to a live person at Facebook, and that’s the key to getting help.

They go by many names in many different industries, but the hook is always the same- some management team of a popular podcast wants you to be on their show, and they want to pay you big money. They often claim to be sponsored by big name companies or are creating a special online event where they’d like you to speak.

If you search the blog for “podcast scam,” you’ll see they go by many names, like Mikhaila Peterson, Lewis Howes, Steven Bartlett, Fresh and Fit Maimi, Robbie Robertson and Nicholas Sterling are just some of the big names they’ve impersonated.

The e-mails all follow a similar pattern like the example below:

How the Facebook Podcast Event Scam Works

Once you reply that you are interested, they’ll set up an online meeting to go over the details and make sure you are set up to do the podcast with them. Next, they are going to ask for some kind of access to your Facebook page and to screenshare to help you set it up. When you do that, they will steal your page, remove you as admin.

This happened to Adrain Wood, of Tales of an Educated Debutante, with over 365,000 Facebook followers and tons of subscribers that pay monthly for special access. It took her over a month to get her page back and during that time to scammers changed the bank account and kept her page going trying to fool her audience with generic posts and photos.

And Jenny Lawson, of The Bloggess, with 210k followers, recently posted a Reel talking about this scam contacting her. She suspected it might not be legit, and posted about it, but wasn’t totally sure about it. I can assure you Jenny, it’s scam!

Why Do They Want to Steal These Pages?

There are many reasons a scammer might want to steal a high-profile Facebook page. When my own Facebook page was stolen, they started posting weird videos and ads, hoping my audience would watch and drive up their views. But other people have reported different actions.

Sell the Page– They may want to sell the page for a high price, to someone that wants to exploit it for advertising like they did mine.

Steal Subscriber Money– If you have revenue from subscribers, they can reroute the money to their own bank accounts. It may be months before your subscribers catch on or you get control of your page back.

Hold the Page for Ransom– Scammers may demand money from you to return your access to your page.

Use Your Audience – They may flood your feed with ads and videos to use your audience for views.

Protect Yourself Against Getting Scammed

If you found this post before getting scammed, congrats! You did the first thing you should do- Google it. Don’t just Google the name or company alone, add “scam” after it. If nothing pops up, try searching using the first few lines of your message and see if anyone is posting about the same one.

Don’t give anyone you don’t know and have 100% verified any kind of access to your Facebook account or your screen. This is a red flag and the main way they hack your account.

Always remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably a scam. Research everything.

If you are reading this too late, check to see if you still have access to your advertising account and then report problems or fraud through there. That will usually connect you with a live person who will help you once you let them know your account has been compromised. I can’t share any direct links because they keep changing them.

About the Author

Candy Keane is a digital content creator and long-time cosplayer, most well-known for being on the cover of the Star Wars documentary Jedi Junkies. After making costumes professionally for over a decade, she now writes about geek culture and mom life, and continues to cosplay for fun, while sharing her love of costumes on Instagram @SewGeekMama. Her first children’s book, I’m Going to My First Comic Convention, was published in 2020 and won a Story Monsters Approved award for Excellence in Literature.

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