If You See Facebook Giveaways for Tiny Homes, Just Stay the Heck Away

You've done it. I've done it. We've all done it: squealed in absolute delight as we've scrolled through photos of a tiny house. The efficiency of the design is awe-inspiring. The way shelf and cabinet space, as well as sleeping and living quarters, are spaced out is delightful. And it looks like there's a new social media giveaway that's trying to capitalize on our fascination with these lilliputian abodes. 

The trouble is, they're a big-time scam.

Omaze is a legitimate charitable agency and has partnerships with a ton of different celebrities and organizations. You've probably seen their countless social media ads promising to put your name in a raffle for a sweet top prize that is either a unique experience, one-off customizable product like a Tesla-powered Porsche, or a tank ride with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and now — the tiny house.

Omaze isn't yanking your chain when it comes to its Tiny Home giveaway though. They've partnered up with Modern Tiny Living and if you win (you have to donate to enter), you'll have a fully customizable tiny home delivered right to you. You get to deck it out and put whatever you want in and on the thing, up to a $100,000 value. So if you want to try your luck and fund a good cause, go right ahead.

Probably because Omaze is such a recognized brand, a bunch of dirty thieving scammers are putting their own "Tiny House Giveaways" on Facebook in the hopes of capitalizing on their good name.

Unlike a lot of other scams on Facebook, however, these Tiny Home Giveaway ones are a lot less pernicious.

Most internet scams work like so: they all begin with a call to action. Often that call is to click on a link that'll redirect you to a page that may look legitimate and it'll ask you to input a bunch of personal information. Some of these sites try to reel you in with cool prizes, giveaways, or offer super cheap products that are otherwise ridiculously expensive on the internet.

These are probably the most transparent forms of scams out there, because they're blatantly asking you for information, either personal data, or credit card numbers with the promise that you can try a product for free and then "cancel" at any time. The thing is, canceling is an absolute nightmare and you'll get some money either taken out of your account, charged to your card, or have your identity stolen.

The majority of these Tiny House Giveaway scams, however, only have a very simple call to action, and that's to "like" their page. That's it. 

But here's the thing: There is no small casa waiting for a "winner." There is no winner.

The only person who "wins" is the scammer who manages to garner a bunch of likes on a Facebook page that they, in turn, go and sell to businesses who want a "built in audience."

Tons of people on Facebook will "like" pages, but rarely go and unlike them at a later time. Reportedly, pages with 100k likes can go for $1,000. Not bad for maybe putting out a few targeted Facebook ads towards gullible people.

So if you want to win a tiny home, you should always look at the agency that's promising one and make sure it's vetted through the Better Business Bureau or other services. Google is your friend in these instances. 

Here's hoping all of your tiny home dreams come true.