It first started as a random post here and there, and then more recently many of my friends have become afflicted with Facebook scams that are becoming increasingly clever at hiding their true identities. Unfortunately, this comes with the territory of being the world’s largest and most successful social community. You get a big target on your back and an army of scam-wielding assailants.
There may be no way that Facebook will be able to catch all of the scam-artists, but there are ways for you to prevent to become one of their many victims. Facebook scams are designed to do a number of things, but the most popular are to access your private account information or find a way to cost you money. Some are designed to move through your friends list and take over their accounts. In any instance, they are bad and you don’t want them.
Here are some tips to identify a scam and what to do about them:
1. The application states it’s from Facebook, but it still asks you to take a quiz or for more info.
Facebook already has a lot of information on you, and if it’s a Facebook feature it won’t come in the form of an application like most applications you’ll see. In most cases, it’s a feature already added to your site or there are Facebook messages at the top of your screen that will let you know when it’s legitimately Facebook. If it’s asking for more info or you have to take a quiz, it is definitely not Facebook. The most recent scam is the “Dislike button.”
2. It offers very high-priced, high-demand products for extremely cheap.
While not a huge fan of Apple products, I do note the iPhone, iPod and iPad is really cool. All are very expensive, and if an application is offering anything like that for extremely cheap or even better – “free” – then you should move on because it’s likely going to cost you more than you could ever imagine.
3. Anything that has to do with money. Period.
I cannot stress this enough, but do not use applications or like things on Facebook that will request some sort of financial information. In most cases, this is a scam. This is fraud. This is everything under the sun that could wreak havoc on your financial stability.
What can you do about Facebook scams?
Facebook does offer many solutions to report a scam as well as it does try to inform you on what to do. Facebook has a security page that will allow you to inform them of scams as well as return the favor by informing you. The Help Center also has a “What to do” page that gives you some help on reporting and protecting your account. It offers great insight on other steps you can take to protect your Facebook account and protecting yourself on the internet.
If you see your friends posting suspicious links or links known to be scams alert them immediately. They may not know they’ve been compromised because many of these scams will post links automatically. Then it is best to contact Facebook on the suspicious activity through their security page. The security page also has a tab solely dedicated to identifying scams.
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