With all the scams that circulate on Facebook, sometimes we think an appropriate alternative name for the site could be “Scambook”! While some Facebook scams are relatively harmless, others can land you in a whole lot of trouble should you fall for them. This is because the scammers look to achieve any (or all) of the following: Obtain your email address so they can continue to spam you Obtain your login credentials (username and password) to various accounts – i.e. Facebook itself, webmail services, online banking, etc. Have you “like” or “share” a particular post (or page) to virally spread their scams Trick you into installing a dodgy Facebook app so they have the ability to post on your timeline Trick you into completing online surveys that they get paid for Trick you into unknowingly installing malware onto your computer or mobile device So you can avoid getting stung, here are the top 5 Facebook scams we think you should know about: Scam #5 – The Facebook dislike button This one’s been doing the rounds for a while, but continues to circulate. And it seems one fed-up individual has even set up a “dislike” the dislike button scam Facebook page! To put it simply, there never has been, nor will there ever be a legitimate Facebook dislike button. So, whenever you see any reference to one of these in your news feed, don’t click on the link! It’s destined to lead you down one of the scam paths we’ve detailed above. Here’s an example: Scam #4 – Like farming & share scams Like farming is when a fake Facebook page is set up by scammers with the purpose of artificially accumulating likes. This is so they can either use the large number of likes to distribute additional Facebook scams, or sell the page on the black market for a profit (pages like this are highly valuable to unethical marketers). Like farming and share scams tend to go hand-in-hand. For example, take the recent “impaled boy” post you may have seen popping up in your news feed (Hoax-Slayer has a good summary of it). It claims that CNN and Facebook will contribute to the child’s medical costs with every like ($20), comment ($50) and share ($100). Be aware that, to date, Facebook has never donated funds to any cause based on the number of likes, comments or shares a post receives. It’s also worth noting that sensational news stories or false headlines are also used to quickly boost likes and shares on particular posts, as people tend to act on these without verifying the news first. If you ever see any of these kinds of posts/images, don’t take any action! You’ll just be spreading the scam further, or making the bad guys some easy cash. Scam #3 – Facebook colour changes Just like the dislike button scam, changing your Facebook colour from the standard blue has never been an option on the site. Instead, offers to change your profile colour often lead to installation of an illegitimate app (that can post, without warning, on your profile!) or a never-ending bunch of survey scams. Pink, black and red… no matter what colour, remember that it’s not possible to alter your profile in this way. Boring blue is not so bad when it saves you from a Facebook scam! Scam #2 – Facebook is charging or deactivating From time to time, spam email messages pretending to come from Facebook stating you’ll be charged for your account or it’ll become deactivated are sent out in force. Here’s an example of one we saw last year: Facebook will never charge you for the general use of it’s service, and it’s not possible for your account to simply “deactivate” without you altering any settings. These kinds of scams are just attempts to phish for your login details or fulfil another of the scammer’s devious objectives. Be sure to look out for other fake Facebook email notifications, like this one, too. In fact, we suggest turning off your Facebook email notifications all together! Scam #1 – Profile viewer apps We see these going around all the time – largely because they play on people’s curiosities. Who wouldn’t want to find out how many times their profile has been viewed, if they’ve got anyone “Facebook stalking” them, or which of their friends have blocked them from appearing in their feed? Except, Facebook never releases this kind of information to app developers. Therefore, without the data that’s necessary to create these kinds of apps, it’s not possible for a genuine one to exist! Instead of telling you who’s been looking at your profile, these kinds of Facebook scams commonly lead to a malicious download that installs a virus or another form of malware on your PC. So, never click on any post that makes such a claim. You may like to also clean up the apps that are already linked to your Facebook profile as well. The bottom line… None of the above Facebook scams are overly elaborate and can even seem quite silly once they’ve been explained. However, they continue to succeed because of their ability to target huge numbers of people in one hit (over a billion people use Facebook each month, making it by far the most popular social networking site in the world). Not to mention they can also be pretty convincing when “endorsed” by friends who have already fallen victim. The bottom line is, if something on your news feed seems suspicious (or similar to any of the scams we’ve described above), avoid clicking and let the person who posted it know that’s it’s likely to be a scam. A small amount of vigilance can go a long way in protecting you and your friends from spreading these scams unknowingly – or giving away your personal information to scammers! Have you clicked on any of the scams described above? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. Filed under: Malware, Security Risks, Social networks Tags: Tags: dislike button, Facebook scams, like farming, profile viewer apps, Scambook, scammers by Jackie Date 11 June, 2013
Posted on: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 06:20:28 +0000
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