The New Zealand Herald reported that a 55-year-old Hastings woman fell victim to a Facebook scam and lost $544 in the process.

According to the report:

"The woman responded to messages on her Facebook page saying she had won $500,000 in a Facebook sweepstake. "She paid the $544 'handling fee' into a Western Union transfer account expecting to receive the prize money, but only received further requests for money."

Facebook has been used as a way to scam users out of money more and more in recent years. Not only do users have to watch out for Phishing attempts, but fake friend requests, 'clickjacking', malicious code on pages and group events, unauthorised surveys and harmful apps.

The Huffington Post has a list of nine common scams on Facebook to watch out for.

Photo credit: Dave Bleasdale via Flickr.