Fact Check

Is Coca-Cola Giving Away Free Bags with Goodies for their 125th Anniversary?

A misleading post came from a fake Coca-Cola Facebook page created the same day the rumor began.

Published March 7, 2021

Claim:
In honor of their 125th anniversary, Coca-Cola is giving away bags "containing lots of Coke goodies and a $20 voucher."

A post on a page falsely presenting itself as a the Facebook page for the Coca-Cola company suggested that all a person has to do to obtain a free bag of Coke goodies, including a $20 voucher, was fill out a survey and interact with a posted photo album:

This was not an official promotion run by the Coca-Cola company. Instead, it was a "typical like-farming scam designed to promote the associated Facebook Page and gather as many new likes as possible." The link to the "survey" was, in fact, a second scam, redirecting users to a series of unrelated and fraudulent offers.

Indeed, since the page was first created on March 5, 2021, it has grown rapidly from zero to 37,914 followers:

Text, File, Menu

The real Coca-Cola USA Facebook page, for comparison, had 105,301,977 followers at the time of this reporting.

Because the page does not represent the Coca-Cola company and is, instead, an imposter attempting to build a Facebook page and make money off other shady offers, the claim presented is a "Scam."

Alex Kasprak is an investigative journalist and science writer reporting on scientific misinformation, online fraud, and financial crime.