Buyer beware: you’re not the only one attracted to Bambu Lab’s current 3rd Anniversary sale. The deep discounts are enticing Facebook scammers as well.
These con artists plan to trick Facebook users out of their hard-earned money by posing as Bambu Lab with fake Facebook pages offering links to artificially sweet deals. The fake pages usually misspell or truncate Bambu Lab’s name and can lead to copycat websites that look incredibly real. The point of the scam is to trick people into buying 3D printers and filament that will never appear.
After YouTuber Angus Deveson (Maker’s Muse) issued a warning about the scam, Bambu Lab took to Facebook to explain that it has been taking legal action against scammers for months.
“We’ve noticed an increase in fake websites and Facebook ads impersonating Bambu Lab. These scams trick users into paying for products they won’t receive, often through look-alike domains or fake discounts,” said Bambu Lab.
The process of reporting fake ads to Facebook can be time-consuming, and companies need your help. Scammers can easily trick Facebook into putting up fake sites with page names and urls that are almost correct. Facebook has billions of users and is one of the most visited websites on the internet, and it relies on users to report false pages and ads to trigger human review.
But recognizing a scam site takes a sharp eye and a deeper knowledge of Bambu Lab than many new to the hobby simply don’t have. For example, did you know that Bambu Lab would never call itself “Bambu”? That nickname is exclusively used by fans. Bambu Lab also never uses grungy photos from a warehouse or a print farm. Real images from Bambu Lab always show 3D printers in perfect condition, placed in impeccably styled settings.
It’s helpful to know Bambu Lab’s real web address, which is BambuLab.com. Simply typing “Bambu Lab” into your search engine will get you to the real site. This “blmake.pro” came from a scammy Facebook ad.
Scammers have no problem scraping a website and putting up a duplicate. This portion of a knock off website even used our Tom’s Hardware Editor’s Choice award on the Bambu Lab P1P. However, these ridiculously low prices should be immediate red flags.
It can be hard to verify if a Facebook page is real. However, if you click the page name and check under “About” you can see a listing for “Page transparency.” This will let you know when the page was created. Another red flag is the fact that a three-year-old company with the most popular 3D printer for beginners only has 3 followers?
What can you do if you encounter a scam? Report the ad directly on Facebook by clicking the menu option and selecting "Report ad," then choosing "Scam, fraud, or false information". If you’re not sure if the ad is a scam, simply look up the manufacturer’s website on your browser. Sales advertised on Facebook should be easy to find on the website.
Below is a real ad by the real Bambu Lab. This is pulled from my personal Facebook page, so it is showing me a few friends that also like Bambu Lab at the top, it uses the proper “Bambu Lab 3D” page name, the correct URL for the company website and uses clean, idealized images of the printers. The $219 starting price is for the A1 Mini without an AMS, which is a pretty good deal, but not over the top.
If you're looking for the real sale, we have it here on our site: here's our coverage of Bambu Lab’s current 3rd Anniversary sale.
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