So we’ve all seen the memes on Facebook, you know the ones – anti Islamic detritus and similar divisive illustrations and “news” which are shared endlessly by “patriots” from the extreme right.

Turns out the posts that are shared around like the bong at a Cheech and Chong festival have a high chance of benefiting the very people they derided.

That’s right, the intolerant and bigoted out there in Fuck off We’re Full land have been unknowingly perpetuating a large scale Facebook scam that has been going on for years. It’s been perpetrated by administrators of large Australian xenophobic facebook sites who are based in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia. The predominate religion in Kosovo and Albania is Islam and Macedonia is 33% Islamic.

Combined these pages had 130,000 likes and individual posts were shared up to 30,000 times each. Facebook has now cut the head of the snake by shutting the sites down for breaching their conditions but the body’s still wriggling and new pages are popping up daily.

But how did people of such towering intellect get scammed you say? Well I’m glad you asked….

The Facebook pages all acted as a conduit through to a news site at HealthyNewsFree.tech. It has a few other names but it’s based in Albania. When people clicked on the meme to read more they were directed to the site – but in Facebook’s AI format which allows Facebook to insert their own ads. When the discerning reader clicked on an ad to apply for MENSA or to purchase a balaclava for the next rally they were making the site money – Big money. 30,000 shares with an average click through rate = $270 per post and there were a lot of posts. And that’s just from Australia.

Not surprisingly the content posted was designed to agitate the “silent majority” as Pauline’s remaining handful of followers call themselves and to unite the right in anti muslim, anti refugee and anti green sentiment. Obviously this sells, supporting Fraser Anning and his ilk and pillorying Labor, the Greens and Moderates is much easier than targeting people who are able to think for themselves.

And there’s the irony. The hard right supporters who distribute xenophobic and divisive material en masse, use my flag as a weapon and symbol of hatred and call the rest of the population sheep are themselves being fleeced and benefiting the very group they are railing against.

Well played.