Just as bearded hipsters migrate from bar to bar in pursuit of
young ladies to ogle, so too have scammers and hackers followed
their prey from MySpace to Facebook. As a result, the social network
once deemed the "safe" option is now plagued by legions of 419
scammers, phishers, and peddlers of malware.
Fortunately, there are a few simple rules Facebookers can follow to
stay safe: Never click on suspicious links from friends; use a
service like LongURL before following any shortened links; and
assume that anyone begging for money is up to no good. And if you do
happen to fall victim to a scam, quickly alert your friends (to
prevent spreading the damage), then alert Facebook administrators
and, if it's serious, law enforcement as well.
Since a reputable source once counseled that knowing is half the
battle, here's a rundown of the Facebook scams most demanding of
your awareness and good judgment:
1) The friendly 419 scam:
The notorious 419 scams have sadly become ubiquitous on the
Internet. While they began as e-mail cons, usually involving
promises of a vast fortune from a Nigerian prince, they have morphed
into a new and more sophisticated ploy that involves hijacking the
Facebook account of a friend in order to fool kind souls into
thinking they're helping a pal. Thieves use an account to garner
sympathy as they claim to be in desperate need of cash, often
because they've been robbed or detained while traveling abroad. One
duped Missouri woman wound up handing over $4,000 before she
realized she'd been had.
2) Hidden fee apps:
There are plenty of Facebook apps and quizzes with questionable
motives and privacy policies, but there are some that are outright
scams. Take, for instance, the sad tale of Leanne Saylor, who fell
prey to scammers after taking a simple IQ quiz on the service. To
receive her results, she was required to submit her cell phone
number and wait for a text. When she didn't receive anything, Saylor
entered her phone number two more times. When she opened her next
cell phone bill, she discovered three charges from the app, totaling
a whopping $44. AT&T blocked future fees, but Saylor learned the
hard way that she should never give out her cell phone number to
strangers, much less strange apps.
3) Fake login pages:
A particularly sneaky method of ensnaring Facebookers lies in the
loads of phishing messages that lead to convincing-but-fake versions
of the Facebook login page. Typically, these spam e-mails are brief
and contain a link, usually ending in ".im" or ".at." (We received
one that simply read, "Look at goodmall.be.") Once you enter your
e-mail and password to 'log in,' it's game over; a hacker has
control of your account and will quickly use it to perpetrate any
one of the scams listed here. What's worse, they'll impersonate you
to spread phishing e-mails to all of your friends.
4) Malware links:
Once an account is hijacked, it can be used to deluge that account
holder's friends with messages containing links to malicious sites.
It's rough stuff. These poisonous software packages leave you
vulnerable to the theft of even more data, including all the
passwords, account numbers and credit card information you may have
entered into your PC. Recently, a barrage of spam messages featuring
a link to "CoooooL Video" actually led to nothing but a nasty
malware infection.
5) Facebook apps that are malware:
Creating Facebook applications has become so easy that hackers have
created apps with the sole aim of tricking you into handing over
your personal data or Facebook password. Some versions impersonate
one of the standard Facebook features, like "Your Photos" and
"Friend's Gifts," and send convincing notifications, like "someone
has commented on your photo," or so-and-so "has posted on your
wall." But clicking on them either leads to a fake login page, or a
window asking for permission to access your Facebook account. These
scams are particularly tough to spot because they mimic actual
Facebook notifications. The only way to protect yourself is to look
for tiny inconsistencies in the false apps (e.g., odd or incorrect
icons, clunky wording and poor English usage). It seems your teacher
wasn't lying after all when she said learning grammar was important.
Source:
switched.com
