TOP TEN FACEBOOK SCAMS - BEWARE!
Fraudsters love Facebook . In fact, they pretty love much all social-networking sites, including Twitter because they are experts in using social engineering to lure people into scams.
The list is by no means exhaustive and we haven't ranked them in order of danger or how frequent a scam is because this can change. But an increased of awareness of the scams Facebook is famous for and their mutations will go a long way in stopping you becoming a victim.
One thing to be aware of each time you install an app on Facebook, whether legitimate or not, is that you give the developer access to your information. So be careful about the type of apps you install.
We take a look at 10 of the most prevalent scams.
1. Free Facebook Credits
"Free Facebook credits (Not Fake)"
Yes they are fake. There are a lots of popular games on Facebook such as Farm Town, and while players can pay money on Facebook for game credits, they are not given away. So don't fall for this because if you are a Farm Town fan (or any other game that uses credits) the only thing that will be harvested is your personal details and the credits won't work. The links can be used to download malware or lead to yet another survey.
2. See who viewed your profile.
"WOW! I cant believe that you can see who is viewing your Profile! I just saw My Top 10 Profile and Photo Peekers and I am SHOCKED!! You can also see WHO VIEWED YOUR PROFILE here."
Wow indeed. Annoying capital letters, bad grammar and punctuation. This scam has a number of faces – 'Find out how fancies you, 'Your greatest admirers', 'You have a stalker' – and plays on people's natural curiosity and fears that they are being spied on. Despite Facebook not allowing any app to gather this data, thousands of people still fall for this con every month. People clicking on the link will be sent to websites offering expensive online services or a fake survey so the fraudsters can get personal information.
3. Add a Dislike button (or love or heart button etc)
"Install a Heart button on your FB profile".
No, don't. Because you can't. It's as simple as that. While Facebook users have long been calling for a ‘Dislike' or ‘Heart' button, the social-networking site has not included these. And it does not allow you to install third-party app buttons. If you click on this link you can be taken to a page where there may be some dangerous content. If Facebook ever does install other buttons, it will be all over the main stream news sites and Facebook's official blog so you should check these sites out before you click on a link
4. Gift Card/ Free shopping vouchers
"Get [£xxxx name your price] worth of vouchers from [add retailer name]"
With this scam you can take your pick of how much the voucher is worth and which retailer or company is offering you this wonderful deal. Except, as always, it's too good to be true. Another survey scam in which you are giving away valuable personal information and for nothing. This year alone we have seen four major retailers, Argos, Tesco, Morrisons and Ebay as hooks.
5. Fake sexy, tasteless, horrific, funny videos
"Check out this funny video of you!" or "Check out [celebrity name] doing something funny/ shocking/being arrested."
Yes you may well be curious but as they say, curiosity killed the cat. These messages often look as if they have been posted to your wall by a friend because they have fallen for the scam and look like a link to a YouTube video. Click on the link, however, and if you are not directed to the ubiquitous survey you will asked to install an app, which can then download malware or redirect you to a page that has a very convincing fake Facebook login page. By logging in you will be handing your details over to a scammer who can then hijack your account.
6. Free gadgets such as iPads & iPhones
"Free [gadget du jour]yours to test and keep."
At the moment fraudsters are luring people into their clutches with the promise of a free iPhone 5. Don't be fooled by messages stating you have won or if you are quick you can test and keep it or any other gadget for that matter. Even Facebook is warning users about this latest scam saying "Beware of iphone5 scams going around Facebook. Apple has not confirmed a release date and all the images you see are artistic impressions and not the real phone. Don't click on any links or like pages or you could get scammed."
7. Breaking news stories
"OMG... [celebrity] dies in horrifying [car, plane, boat] accident"
These fake headlines invariably start with 'OMG' or 'SHOCKING!!!!!!' But what is shocking are the number of people who can't help but click on the link and fall for these headline grabbing scams. Again you may be asked to install an app which can be used to download malware or let the scammer post spam onto you and your friend's walls – making it look like it comes from you.
8. I need your help desparately
"Help I am stranded in [location] and need help and money."
No they don't. Trust us they don't. Think about it. If a friend of yours or a member of your family is really stranded in a UK city or somewhere far more exotic, they won't be contacting you via Facebook. In this country they will phone you, and may reverse the charges, or the police, and if they are abroad and really need help again they will call you or contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The FCO can call you to request financial help a friend or family memebrr. But it is easy to check that this is a genuine request by simply calling the FCO back to verify matters.
Contact your friend via email and tell them that their Facebook account has been hijacked.
9. "Which Celebrity are you like?"
Do you really think you are like Tom Cruise or Angelina Jolie, or god forbid some loser from Big Brother or The Only Way is Essex? This is another popular rogue app that gets you to fill in a survey for anything like tickets to a year's free McDonalds meals. You of course won't get any of those, but it will tag your friends and send spam messages to them. The developer also has full access to your Facebook information, which can be very valuable to criminals.
10. Hoaxes
"This child has cancer. Facebook is about to donate 3 cent for every share."
At the moment these are just nasty hoaxes and aimed to tug at our heart strings. They are the social-networking equivalent of the chain mail letters and emails. In time they may well get nastier but certainly cause misery to some people because the pictures have been stolen from someone's site. This particular picture has been around for a few years, although the message changes. If it was true, you know there would be a link to an official Facebook blog. There isn't by the way.
How to protect yourself
Be sceptical of what you read or links on the site. Some scams are more immediately dangerous than others. But with all you could end up on a fraudsters list for far more dangerous scams, or be directed to a site that will download malicious software such as banking Trojans, keystroke loggers and more. Some of the ever-present surveys ask for a mobile number and there is the real danger that you will find when your phone bill arrives that it has been used to send out premium-rate text messages.
You will also be spamming the same message to your friends and they won't stay very friendly if they fall victim to a scam because they believe a link or ad is safe because it has come from you.
Clean up your act
If you have clicked on any of these links and downloaded a rogue app you need to clean up your Facebook page. To remove any reference to the message in your newsfeed and profile click X in the top right-hand corner of the post. Then remove the app from your account by accessing your privacy settings from Home in the top right-hand corner of your profile page. Click on Ads, Apps and Websites. Then Edit Settings and click on X to remove the offending app(s).
You should also change your password and run a full security scan to make sure that no malware has been downloaded. We also suggest using BitDefender's Safego or Norton's SafeWeb free social networking security apps.
You can also check out Hoax Slayer for up to date news on scams, frauds and hoaxes.
The list is by no means exhaustive and we haven't ranked them in order of danger or how frequent a scam is because this can change. But an increased of awareness of the scams Facebook is famous for and their mutations will go a long way in stopping you becoming a victim.
One thing to be aware of each time you install an app on Facebook, whether legitimate or not, is that you give the developer access to your information. So be careful about the type of apps you install.
We take a look at 10 of the most prevalent scams.
1. Free Facebook Credits
"Free Facebook credits (Not Fake)"
Yes they are fake. There are a lots of popular games on Facebook such as Farm Town, and while players can pay money on Facebook for game credits, they are not given away. So don't fall for this because if you are a Farm Town fan (or any other game that uses credits) the only thing that will be harvested is your personal details and the credits won't work. The links can be used to download malware or lead to yet another survey.
2. See who viewed your profile.
"WOW! I cant believe that you can see who is viewing your Profile! I just saw My Top 10 Profile and Photo Peekers and I am SHOCKED!! You can also see WHO VIEWED YOUR PROFILE here."
Wow indeed. Annoying capital letters, bad grammar and punctuation. This scam has a number of faces – 'Find out how fancies you, 'Your greatest admirers', 'You have a stalker' – and plays on people's natural curiosity and fears that they are being spied on. Despite Facebook not allowing any app to gather this data, thousands of people still fall for this con every month. People clicking on the link will be sent to websites offering expensive online services or a fake survey so the fraudsters can get personal information.
3. Add a Dislike button (or love or heart button etc)
"Install a Heart button on your FB profile".
No, don't. Because you can't. It's as simple as that. While Facebook users have long been calling for a ‘Dislike' or ‘Heart' button, the social-networking site has not included these. And it does not allow you to install third-party app buttons. If you click on this link you can be taken to a page where there may be some dangerous content. If Facebook ever does install other buttons, it will be all over the main stream news sites and Facebook's official blog so you should check these sites out before you click on a link
4. Gift Card/ Free shopping vouchers
"Get [£xxxx name your price] worth of vouchers from [add retailer name]"
With this scam you can take your pick of how much the voucher is worth and which retailer or company is offering you this wonderful deal. Except, as always, it's too good to be true. Another survey scam in which you are giving away valuable personal information and for nothing. This year alone we have seen four major retailers, Argos, Tesco, Morrisons and Ebay as hooks.
5. Fake sexy, tasteless, horrific, funny videos
"Check out this funny video of you!" or "Check out [celebrity name] doing something funny/ shocking/being arrested."
Yes you may well be curious but as they say, curiosity killed the cat. These messages often look as if they have been posted to your wall by a friend because they have fallen for the scam and look like a link to a YouTube video. Click on the link, however, and if you are not directed to the ubiquitous survey you will asked to install an app, which can then download malware or redirect you to a page that has a very convincing fake Facebook login page. By logging in you will be handing your details over to a scammer who can then hijack your account.
6. Free gadgets such as iPads & iPhones
"Free [gadget du jour]yours to test and keep."
At the moment fraudsters are luring people into their clutches with the promise of a free iPhone 5. Don't be fooled by messages stating you have won or if you are quick you can test and keep it or any other gadget for that matter. Even Facebook is warning users about this latest scam saying "Beware of iphone5 scams going around Facebook. Apple has not confirmed a release date and all the images you see are artistic impressions and not the real phone. Don't click on any links or like pages or you could get scammed."
7. Breaking news stories
"OMG... [celebrity] dies in horrifying [car, plane, boat] accident"
These fake headlines invariably start with 'OMG' or 'SHOCKING!!!!!!' But what is shocking are the number of people who can't help but click on the link and fall for these headline grabbing scams. Again you may be asked to install an app which can be used to download malware or let the scammer post spam onto you and your friend's walls – making it look like it comes from you.
8. I need your help desparately
"Help I am stranded in [location] and need help and money."
No they don't. Trust us they don't. Think about it. If a friend of yours or a member of your family is really stranded in a UK city or somewhere far more exotic, they won't be contacting you via Facebook. In this country they will phone you, and may reverse the charges, or the police, and if they are abroad and really need help again they will call you or contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The FCO can call you to request financial help a friend or family memebrr. But it is easy to check that this is a genuine request by simply calling the FCO back to verify matters.
Contact your friend via email and tell them that their Facebook account has been hijacked.
9. "Which Celebrity are you like?"
Do you really think you are like Tom Cruise or Angelina Jolie, or god forbid some loser from Big Brother or The Only Way is Essex? This is another popular rogue app that gets you to fill in a survey for anything like tickets to a year's free McDonalds meals. You of course won't get any of those, but it will tag your friends and send spam messages to them. The developer also has full access to your Facebook information, which can be very valuable to criminals.
10. Hoaxes
"This child has cancer. Facebook is about to donate 3 cent for every share."
At the moment these are just nasty hoaxes and aimed to tug at our heart strings. They are the social-networking equivalent of the chain mail letters and emails. In time they may well get nastier but certainly cause misery to some people because the pictures have been stolen from someone's site. This particular picture has been around for a few years, although the message changes. If it was true, you know there would be a link to an official Facebook blog. There isn't by the way.
How to protect yourself
Be sceptical of what you read or links on the site. Some scams are more immediately dangerous than others. But with all you could end up on a fraudsters list for far more dangerous scams, or be directed to a site that will download malicious software such as banking Trojans, keystroke loggers and more. Some of the ever-present surveys ask for a mobile number and there is the real danger that you will find when your phone bill arrives that it has been used to send out premium-rate text messages.
You will also be spamming the same message to your friends and they won't stay very friendly if they fall victim to a scam because they believe a link or ad is safe because it has come from you.
Clean up your act
If you have clicked on any of these links and downloaded a rogue app you need to clean up your Facebook page. To remove any reference to the message in your newsfeed and profile click X in the top right-hand corner of the post. Then remove the app from your account by accessing your privacy settings from Home in the top right-hand corner of your profile page. Click on Ads, Apps and Websites. Then Edit Settings and click on X to remove the offending app(s).
You should also change your password and run a full security scan to make sure that no malware has been downloaded. We also suggest using BitDefender's Safego or Norton's SafeWeb free social networking security apps.
You can also check out Hoax Slayer for up to date news on scams, frauds and hoaxes.