Recent Facebook hoaxes and scams

 

 There are many things that seek to grab our attention on social media. Facebook is ripe with a feast for the eyes with game advertisements, status updates from friends, and legitimate ads that it is easy to become complacent and be lulled into a false sense of security. This being said, we must still remain diligent and wary of not just blindly clicking on every link and ad that might look interesting to us.  Some scams have been trying to take advantage of Facebook users recently so please take some time to be aware of some of the ones that are circulating the internet.

The subscription hoax. This is another one that is causing havoc in the social network realm where users are making posts exclaiming that Facebook has finally decided on a price to charge user in order to keep parts of their account private.  Facebook as also dismissed these posts as a scam and that all right to private user media still belongs to the user and remains private free of charge. However the privacy policy does state, and I am paraphrasing, that any media posted as public is fair game for Facebook to use as they will.

 The photo notification scam. This one works via email. Users receive an email saying you've been tagged in a photo on Facebook.  The fake email address is "Faceboook.com" (notice the extra o).  By clicking on the enclosed link, the user will lead to downloading  malware to the computer. Immediate deletion of this email is strongly advised.

The Facebook privacy hoax.  How it works it Facebook users post a status update that looks something like this:

"I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, or posts, both past and future. By this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tactically allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates."

Facebook put out a statement  Monday regarding this issue. "The thing about copying and pasting a legal notice is just a hoax," -Facebook.
 

 Clickjacking.  Clickjacking is where fake links and buttons are added to a page to trick people into downloading malware, viruses, and or giving up personal information. Many are large brightly colored buttons or indecent image and video links.

The "dislike button" scam.  A link is posted by a user that says it will instruct the user on how to install the new Facebook "dislike button"; instead, it takes you to another site that will take your personal information.  Although Facebook really does plan to add a dislike button it is unlikely that you will have to download anything in order to take advantage of it if the dislike button is in fact added.

Thanks for reading and stay safe out there on the inter-web!