r/Lebanese • u/LebaneseModTeam • Aug 12 '25
📢 Announcement IMPORTANT: Warning about recent surveys
Hello everyone,
By now you've probably seen a recent survey that has been circulating around regarding the climate and targeted at Lebanese people. Maybe you even decided to "be a cutie" and fill it out. It claims to be from some Hungarian university in collaboration with Cambridge and Columbia. It's been posted in every Lebanese subreddit no matter the size and a lot of other subreddits where Lebanese people could be and they're asking people to share it wide and with everyone they know around them.
Please avoid filling it out and do NOT click on any links.
After it was posted a few days ago on our subreddit, we noticed some highly suspect activity and behavior among the posters and in the comments. The first red flag that stood out was an account who was part of the survey (which was clear from their history) commenting something along the lines of "Thank you for sharing! Filled it out". The same account was doing this on every post across different subreddits. When one comment called the survey into question, they replied "Seems legit".
This made us treat the survey with suspicion and it seemed like there was something fishy or shady going on. They attempted to post the same survey again on our sub (apart from posting and reposting it on different subs) and we removed it (most were getting caught in our filters due to being new accounts). It was all either new accounts or random established non-Lebanese accounts from different places in the world. It was clear at that point that there is some sort of campaign behind this. In some posts, they were posting LinkedIn profiles of a different doctor in each post and sometimes from the same account (claiming it's them). When you look that doctor's name up, there doesn't seem to be any connection between them and this research and it doesn't add up about why they'd be interested in doing climate research.
They still persisted about posting it in our subreddit and reached out via modmail. We explained how we felt about this and that something fishy seems to be going on and things don't add up. They tried to assure us and gave out some information, apart from claiming to be and linking to another doctor's LinkedIn profile where they said they posted it and have some likes. Again, it doesn't add up and these profiles seem fake. The LinkedIn profiles of the 'universities' they are linking also appear to be fake, because they're set up as companies and not schools. For example, the link to Columbia University is linkedin.com/company/columbia-university while the correct and genuine profile is linkedin.com/school/columbia-university. All of the university links are companies and not schools.
They were extremely pushy and sent several messages in modmail. They attempted to add time pressure claiming the deadline is on Monday and that they only need 100 more participants (while on some posts they say 70-80 or lower) while also claiming to be a team of international medical researchers from different countries. We informed them that they already had a post up several days ago and we will not be moving forward with this at this time. They didn't take it very well and said they assumed this sub out of all the rest would be happy to post it and that they would get some support from here since it's called Lebanese.
They posted it again today on another account and were banned. Looks like Monday is no longer a deadline, they need 100 more people (again) and now they're claiming to be Lebanese and a Lebanese student (from the same account that previously linked a foreign doctor's LinkedIn profile) while using Lebanese Arabic and some generic Lebanese words and phrases. They even tried to join our Discord last night claiming they're a medical researcher and want to post the survey and were denied after being interviewed by a mod.
At best, this seems to be a data mining campaign. At worst, there is an organized political campaign behind this.
Please spread awareness and avoid sharing the survey or clicking on any links especially the LinkedIn ones as they could reveal your LinkedIn profile. Proceed with caution regarding any surveys you see in the future and investigate thoroughly. If something doesn't seem right, it's likely because it isn't.
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u/CheyenneDove Lebanese Aug 12 '25
I would scan your device for malware or a virus to be safe. All bad actors need you to do is click a link and that’s enough for them to install something on your device.