Do not fall for the Sweetwater Gibson Les Paul Guitar giveaway that's going around in TikTok ads. The ads claim, "After misleading advertising prices, Sweetwater is handing out Les Paul guitars to men over 35!" This is false, scammy and not happening. The names of Sweetwater and Gibson are being used for fraudulent purposes. The company has no involvement with the scam. If you see an ad claiming that these guitars are less than $10, it's a scam. These guitars are very carefully designed and will never go for less than hundreds of dollars but more likely thousands.
The Sweewater Gibson Les Paul Guitar giveaway scam started going around in TikTok ads apparently in March 2024 but may have been around a long time before that. I received the scam ads in my own feed on the night of March 31, 2024. I immediately knew it was a scam since the guitars are so expensive.
Here's my advice on avoiding these scams: if you see a product that's normally sold for a high price and an ad claims it's available for under $10 or for free as long as you pay shipping and handling, then you're looking directly at a scam. The Sweetwater Gibson Les Paul Guitar giveaway scam in TikTok ads was simply the latest such scam going around online making claims of a high-priced product suddenly being affordable to everyone.
The way the scam works is a victim gives away their credit card information without looking at the terms and conditions, which say you'll be charged close to $100 or $200 per month for services not described anywhere on the website where the victim put in their details. It's sometimes for healthy meal plans, whatever that is, or something else. Do not fall for this.
In my time of covering these scams, I've seen hidden subscription scams for Le Creuset and HexClad cookware sets with deepfake videos of celebrities, expensive crossbows with claims of celebrity endorsements and packaging issues leading them to be a new, low price, and other scams. Do not fall for this stuff.
