Post by kas on Nov 20, 2010 15:15:05 GMT -5
There are so many Facebook scams going around that you must watch out for if you are registered on Facebook. So many people (even people who used to be techs) can fall for some of these!
This thread is mainly here to keep the people like mom's and grandmother's and other non-computer-literate people out there safe who would not be as able to identify a scam when they see it.
As a Facebook user myself (no I won't tell you my facebook because I keep mine private and only there for finding out new scams to keep people at my job safe) I get many emails saying that someone wants to be my friend or even one that said that I haven't been on in awhile. The first type, some are true, but not all. When I was getting these type of emails also in other email accounts that are NOT associated with Facebook I decided to look into them farther using a Sandboxed environment. I realized that many are phishing attempts that try to get your login information to then gain access and take over your Facebook to then spam all your Facebook friends. The last kind I got was different. It actually instead brought me to an virus infested illegal pharmacy site. Nice .. not!
So what do you do to keep yourself safe? ONLY log into Facebook direct in your browser. Do NOT do it through the email by clicking the link to login or clicking on anything in email. Only view it but do not click as there is no way to verify where it is going to take you (well there is but not by default and you have to learn a lot of security things like I have learned which I will get into later .. this is for people who have a simple default setting on their computer .. as most do who are on Facebook).
With all those "apps" on Facebook (stands for Applications) do not click them unless you know everything about them (you usually will not know much about them at all) just like you would not click some random install for any programs to install on your computer!
Just because your friends (and sometimes you don't even know the person other than a name on the net) says something is true does NOT mean it is! So just because they are passing it on and saying for you to do so, does NOT mean you should pass it on! This is just like email spam. Do NOT forward it or you are no better than the spammer! Facebook was meant to network all your friends and family together who have something in common, not to spam every person who in some way knows your name online.
This thread is mainly here to keep the people like mom's and grandmother's and other non-computer-literate people out there safe who would not be as able to identify a scam when they see it.
As a Facebook user myself (no I won't tell you my facebook because I keep mine private and only there for finding out new scams to keep people at my job safe) I get many emails saying that someone wants to be my friend or even one that said that I haven't been on in awhile. The first type, some are true, but not all. When I was getting these type of emails also in other email accounts that are NOT associated with Facebook I decided to look into them farther using a Sandboxed environment. I realized that many are phishing attempts that try to get your login information to then gain access and take over your Facebook to then spam all your Facebook friends. The last kind I got was different. It actually instead brought me to an virus infested illegal pharmacy site. Nice .. not!
So what do you do to keep yourself safe? ONLY log into Facebook direct in your browser. Do NOT do it through the email by clicking the link to login or clicking on anything in email. Only view it but do not click as there is no way to verify where it is going to take you (well there is but not by default and you have to learn a lot of security things like I have learned which I will get into later .. this is for people who have a simple default setting on their computer .. as most do who are on Facebook).
With all those "apps" on Facebook (stands for Applications) do not click them unless you know everything about them (you usually will not know much about them at all) just like you would not click some random install for any programs to install on your computer!
Just because your friends (and sometimes you don't even know the person other than a name on the net) says something is true does NOT mean it is! So just because they are passing it on and saying for you to do so, does NOT mean you should pass it on! This is just like email spam. Do NOT forward it or you are no better than the spammer! Facebook was meant to network all your friends and family together who have something in common, not to spam every person who in some way knows your name online.