Is "Invitation: Participate in a Facebook Research Study in Phoenix" Scam?

Sample of an "Invitation: Participate in a Facebook Research Study in Phoenix" Email

From: Facebook User Experience Research <research@support.facebook.com>

Subject: Invitation: Participate in a Facebook Research Study in Phoenix!

Date: August 16, 2018 at 3:11:03 PM MST

Reply-To: andersond@fb.com

Facebook Research

Hello John,

I'm Diarra with Facebook Research. We are looking for people 18 years or older to participate in a 45-minute research study on either Wednesday, August 22nd or Thursday, August 23rd. The study will be in person at a research site in Phoenix, Arizona. To thank you for your time, you'll receive a $75 Amazon gift card if you are selected and participate. Available times are at the end of the survey. We value user privacy and your answers to this survey will be strictly confidential and ONLY be used for study recruiting purposes.

If you are interested in participating, please click here to complete this brief survey or copy this link into your browser: https://facebook.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bI2uHYYXDDamltb

Once you've indicated your interest and availability and if you are selected for the study you can expect:

-a follow-up call or email

-a confirmation email of the date including details regarding participation

-an email including a link to sign our Research Participation Agreement

-an email with your Amazon e-giftcard 2-3 business days after your session

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions! If you would like to know more about Facebook UX Research, visit www.facebook.com/research.

Thank you,

Diarra Anderson | Facebook

1 Facebook Way | Menlo Park | 94025 | CA, US

Your information will be used for research purposes only. We will not share your personally identifiable information with anyone outside of Facebook as stated in our Data Policy.

We respect the personal nature of e-mail communication. If you do not wish to receive e-mail invitations to participate in research about Facebook, click here.

So, how can you tell if a Facebook survey email message is legitimate or not? Well, the best way is to ask Facebook. Yes, you can ask the Facebook Help Community to help verify the legitimacy of an email message.

This is how it works:

• click here to visit the Facebook Help Community
• click the "Ask a Question" button on the Facebook Help Community website
• select a topic, then a sub-topic
• ask the following question: "Is this email 'Invitation to Participate in Facebook Research' legitimate?"
• click the "Next" button
• Facebook will display a list of related questions, if your question is listed, click on it to view the answers, otherwise, click the "My Question is New" and then copy and paste the body of the email message in the text box on the screen that comes up
• click the "Post" button to submit your question
• re-visit after a few hours to view the answer(s) to your question

To prevent online scammers from tricking users into taking fake Facebook surveys that steal personal information, Facebook should announce their surveys in the Notification box of Facebook users' accounts, or announce them in a post in their News Feed, instead of sending them via emails.

Click here for information about Email Spoofing.