About All Those She’s Gone Ads on Facebook

facebook she is gone ads
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If you are on Facebook you can’t avoid them. The “She’s gone” ads, suggesting that celebrities like Sally Fields, Betty White, Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Susan Sarandon, and Kris Jenner, have died (they haven’t), with the weird domain names, are everywhere.

Weird domain names like bookshockchair.com and namechangefever.com (they almost always are a string of three random words followed by .com).

bogus scam domain facebook shes gone ad sandra bullock

 

So what is the deal with these “She’s gone” ads (and the newer “{Celebrity Name} Wedding at {age}”, such as “Betty White’s Wedding at 94” ads – a good trick as they have her both dying, and getting married, at the same time), and these sites?

facebook she is gone ads

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Click on them, and each and every one of them leads not to news that they have died (surprise, surprise) but a website selling Beauty & Truth (oh, the irony) brand youth serum.

Beauty & Truth Facial Serums on the Landing Page
she is gone ads beauty and truth

 

Actually it isn’t always Beauty & Truth Serum, sometimes it’s the exact same thing, only labelled as Noveau Skin Care Serum and Tranquille Eye Serum. Literally nothing else is different other than the name of the product, right down to how it displays today’s date as the “special sale” date, and the video of Oprah and Dr. Oz.

she is gone ads noveau tranquille

 

Otherwise, the sites that these ads lead you to are basically identical, other than the scammy domains to which each of them resolve.

Domains like “http://shape.com-website.co/skin/cj/sandra-erase.html” and “http://shape.com-yourtrendingnews.co/sally_eraserenew_dlx_v2.php”

(Frankly, we’re a bit astonished that domain registrars let people get away with registering a “com-sometexthere.co” domain, as it’s obvious that it is going to be used to trick people, as in the case of the subdomain ‘shape’ in the above ‘shape.com-website-co” and “shape.com-yourtrendingnews.co”.)

And speaking of Shape, that is another thing that all of these scam sites have in common: they are all using the Shape (as in Shape magazine) trademark, and many are using “shape.com” in their URL, to further confuse people, and to suggest legitimacy.

shape.com-website.co

 

shape.com-stories.net

 

shes gone ads shape magazine

 

What chutzpah! They even have ripped off the entire Shape menu bar, although of course those links don’t go to Shape magazine, they go to either a tracker, or they throw a 404 ‘page not found’ error.

shape magazine spoofing she is gone ads

 

Now here’s a fun exercise: what else these sites all have in common is the exact same wording of the supporting information and even the comments. So, for example, try plugging this text, which is on all of the sites, into Google:

“It recently was a celeb secret until Amy Davis, a 54 year-old mother of three from Los Angeles, California was featured on the Dr. Oz Show. Amy’s testimonial revolutionized the industry. A perfect example of how a little smart-thinking and ingenuity can help you avoid unnecessary health risks and save you thousands of dollars in doctors’ bills.”

shes gone ads text amy davis

 

Yep, that exact same text appears on all of these sites.

Even more fun is plugging the comments on the sites into Google – these comments are supposed to convince you that they are comments from real users, getting real results. But check this out – try putting “I saw this combo on CNN a while ago and still using the combo. I’ve been using the products for about 6 wks” into Google:

shes gone ads testimonial

 

Wow, Tanya Porquez is one busy lady! And she apparently has the ability to post simultaneously across multiple sites at the exact came time!

shes gone ads comments

 

Now, obviously all of these sites are being set up by and driven by affiliates of these skin care products, who earn a commission whenever someone buys through their site. And there is, in fact, an actual Beauty & Truth site (and also a site for each of Noveau Skin Care Serum and Tranquille Eye Serum).

The Beauty & Truth site, which is at eraserepair.com says “This product has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Results in description are illustrative and may not be typical results and individual results may vary. Representations regarding the efficacy and safety of Erase Repair HA have not been scientifically substantiated or evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The depictions on this page are fictitious and indicative of potential results.”

Did you catch that? “The depictions on this page are fictitious”… yep, as are all of the depictions in their scammy ads.

None of these sites existed a year ago, and most of them didn’t even exist 6 months ago. And of course all of them are hidden behind private registrations, most of them through WhoisGuard out of Panama.

whoisguard she is gone sites

 

And yet despite the mountains of evidence that these are misleading ads, which go to scam sites, there they are, all over Facebook.

WHY does Facebook continue to allow these ads? Follow the money, baby.

The reason for these scammy ads is that they work. The people behind them have to pay Facebook for every single click on each of those ads, which means that they must be selling enough of their anti-aging stuff to make paying Facebook for the ads worthwhile.

facebook ad she is gone horizontal strip

It’s just like any other form of spam – spammers and scammers do it because it works. If nobody bought things through spam – if nobody clicked on the ads – they wouldn’t bother to do it. Although, in the case of the Facebook ads, because they don’t pay for them to be shown to you, they only pay if you click on them, there’s even more incentive to keep doing it.

So what can the average Internet citizen do about these ads?

In this case, doing nothing is something. By which we mean, do nothing – don’t click on them.

Or, maybe do click on them, if you want to cost the scammers money.

And if you are really motivated, [FACEBOOK HAS REMOVED THIS LINK]. Feel free to reference this article in your report.

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2 thoughts on “About All Those She’s Gone Ads on Facebook

  1. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ADD!!!! I, however caught 2 “pending charges” from one of these skin care cream adds (uuuuugh) and yes, I figured out the scam as soon as I Googled the words ” Amy Davis, a 54 year old mother of three from Los Angeles”! DAMMIT!! There are MANY DIFFERENT NAMES OF THIS SKIN CARE/SERUM BEING USED and Amy Davis must only be putting a fingerprint of each serum all over her body to make so many claims for each of these brands! One ad I just found: ” Exclusive Demi Moore and Bruce are getting Married again!” sends the customer to Amazon to purchase BUT Amazon has it listed as “no longer available” (good for them). It’s REALLY sad that people have nothing better to do with their life but create scams…. I would hate to be on the other end of that type of Kharma! Jack A**es! Anyway, a copy of your URL and article has been sent to my bank & Visa! THANK YOU for being the “White Hats” & helping us prove the scam, KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK!

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