Social media giant Facebook took down hundreds of pages and ads promoting solar panel tax credits that did not exist, it was revealed this week.

"These scammy ads have no place on Facebook," company spokeswoman Devon Kearns said in a statement. "We removed these pages and disabled these ad accounts recently and will continue to take action."

However, those ads - which featured images of the governors of the state of Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, and even President Donald Trump - ran for months, authorities say.

The ads promised U.S. homeowners that they were eligible for huge state tax breaks if they installed new solar-energy panels. According to the Associated Press, one of the pages that was active recently was called Solar Energy Today and ran almost 5,000 ads in the last year, all of them advertising the fake rebate. 

The advertisement claimed that with new, lucrative tax incentives, people might actually make money by installing solar technology on their homes. Facebook users only needed to enter their addresses, email, utility information and phone number to find out more.

While the ads didn’t directly stole money from people - and no one could buy solar panels through them either - they led to websites that collected personal information.
This is called “lead generation,” where scammers sell the personal information they collect to other companies looking for potential customers.

Buzzfeed notes that “according to Facebook’s new ad library, the Solar Energy Today page spent $2.4 million on advertisements between March 2018 and March 2019, averaging about $100 on each ad. The ads were all labeled in Facebook’s advertising system as “Related to politics or issues of importance” and shared similar themes.”

“ATTENTION FLORIDA HOMEOWNERS: Don’t Waste Money On New Solar Panels! There is a new 2019 program that quote you the best solar deal IMMEDIATELY for FREE,” the accompanying text for one of the misleading ad read. “There is a new program release lately that Governor Ron DeSantis will release $100 million solar incentives for Florida solar expansion. If you are lucky enough to live in an active zip code, you can get life time electricity supply for free, Check it out and see if you qualify!”

The ad was displayed across 10,000 and 50,000 News Feeds and exclusively targeted users in Florida. Solar Energy Today spent between $100 and $499 boosting the ad. 
If you go through all the questions on the solar energy site, you’ll eventually end up at a credit score website called Freescore360.com, which was part of a group of shady credit check sites that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated, and which agreed, as part of a settlement, to refund $22 million to customers in 2014. 

Beware of scams!

Of course, this is only one way scammers are trying to bilk potential solar power customers out of their money.

Others are not as technology-savvy as that of ads on Facebook, but are equally deceitful and problematic.

According to www.scam-detector.com, another problem are companies that “lure you into paying a huge deposit to a contractor who doesn't deliver the system. Some would just vanish with the deposit, others (the majority) would deliver a bogus system that's not even close to provide what is supposed to”.

In another type of fraud, solar panels owners receive telephone cold calls offering to supply upgrades or accessories alongside extended warranty products. “These calls  from people claiming to represent solar companies come with misleading claims such as the need for an inverter replacement, that a component is broken or faulty or that the performance of the system will be increased.”.

Criminals may even claim to be official partners of the U.S. Department of Energy, which is not the case.

Yet one more scam is based on usual means of communication, a letter, where they notify you that "you have not received your free health check and service" and "you warranty may be due to expire"? It asks the recipient to contact the sender to validate the warranty and request a free health check. 

In general, you should be wary of any unsolicited approach and offer of services. Also, never, ever, provide personal information over the phone or to someone who appears unannounced in your home.

If someone says they represent a particular company, or utility, ask for identification and call to verify. 

When it comes to your money, remember that it’s better safe than sorry.

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