Prize scams are as old as the hills , but people keep falling for them — sending the fraudsters hundreds , sometimes thousands of dollars to claim their cash , luxury cars or other non-existent prizes . Sweepstakes , lottery and prize scams “ are among the most serious and pervasive frauds operating today , ” according to a new report from the Better Business Bureau . And along with phone calls , letters and email , the crooks are now using text messages , pop-ups and phony Facebook messages to lure Attack.Phishing their victims . In fact , social media is now involved in a third of the sweepstakes fraud complaints received by the FBI ’ s Internet Crime Complaint Center ( IC3 ) . “ Scammers are like viruses . They mutate and adapt and find things that work , ” said Steve Baker , former director of the Federal Trade Commission ’ s Midwest region and author of the BBB report . “ The crooks have discovered social media big time and since social media is free to use , they can easily do a whole lot of damage from other countries. ” The BBB study found that : Nearly 500,000 people reported a sweepstakes , lottery or other prize scam to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada in the last three years . Monetary losses totaled $ 117 million last year . Facebook Messenger Lottery Fraud Scammers are creating Attack.Phishing bogus websites that look like Attack.Phishing a legitimate lottery or sweepstakes site . Or they are reaching out to potential victims who don ’ t properly set their privacy settings on social media platforms such as Facebook . The BBB report says Facebook Messenger , the private messaging app , is a favorite way for fraudsters to find victims . They can use Messenger — with or without a Facebook profile — and contact people who are not Facebook friends . In many cases , the bogus message appears to be Attack.Phishing from Publishers Clearing House ( PCH ) congratulating you on winning a big prize . To claim that prize , it says , you need to send them money . “ That ’ s a red flag warning , ” said Chris Irving , a PCH assistant vice president . “ If anybody asks you to send money to collect a prize , you know it 's a scam and it 's not from the real Publishers Clearing House . At Publishers Clearing House or any legitimate sweepstakes , the winning is always free — no purchase , no payment , no taxes or customs to pay. ” The crooks also impersonate Attack.Phishing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in some of their phony Messenger messages . “ They post Attack.Phishing a fake profile of Zuckerberg on Facebook , ” Baker said . “ Then they send Attack.Phishing you a message through the Facebook messenger system saying : ‘ Hi this is Mark Zuckerberg . I 'm delighted to be able to tell you that you have won the Facebook Lottery and here is the person you need to contact to get the money . ’ ” Take the bait Attack.Phishing and click the link , and you ’ ll be told to send money to claim your winnings . Of course , there is no Facebook Lottery and Zuckerberg is not sending prize notices to anyone . In a recent story on social media scams , the New York Times reported it found 208 accounts that impersonated Zuckerberg or Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on Facebook and Instagram . At least 51 of the impostor accounts , including 43 on Instagram , were lottery scams . ( In 2012 , Facebook purchased Instagram for $ 1 billion . ) Facebook says it ’ s working to stop the scammers who use its platform to trick Attack.Phishing people out of their money . In March , the company announced it was using new machine learning techniques that helped it detect more than a half-million accounts related to fraudulent activity . “ These ploys are not allowed on Facebook and we 're constantly working to better defend against them , ” said Product Manager Scott Dickens . “ While we block millions of fake accounts at registration every day , we still need to focus on the would-be scammers who manage to create accounts . Our new machine learning models are trained on previously confirmed scams to help detect new ones. ” The company has also posted a warning on how to avoid Facebook scams . The BBB report calls on Facebook and other social media platforms to make “ additional efforts ” to prevent fake profiles and to make it easier for users to contact them about fraud .