How To Avoid Facebook Scams

There's a special name for the way scammers manipulate victims like this: social engineering. While it's true that malicious hackers known as crackers sometimes pierce a system's security by using various software tricks and hacks, it's also common for people to willingly give up information. The scammer just has to make the victim want to share. There are a couple of common ways scammers trick people into sharing:

• They appeal to the victim's vanity with a message that suggests the victim can be seen in a compromising or funny way at a certain website. The link to the Web site actually leads the victim to downloading malware
• They make promises of get-rich-quick schemes
• They tempt the victim into sharing a credit card number, then commit credit-card fraud

Read the full article for more information and for ways to protect against Facebook scams.

Source. Via HowStuffWorks.

"View Your Top Stalkers" Scam

One scam currently circulating on the social network spreads messages that read: "I cant believe you can see who is visiting your profile! I just saw my top 1o STALKERS .

Results were shocking. This app is AWESOME. You can also see who is vising your profile. MUST try it [link] :D"

The advertised link takes users to a rogue Facebook app called "See Who Viewed Your Profile" which asks them for access to post on their walls.

People who misguidedly install the app and give it the requested permissions, will end up spamming their friends with the aforementioned message.

After the application is installed, users are presented with a "Your Top Stalkers" page which displays a list of users with a generic pic and a locket.

A pop-up window claims that viewing the content requires verifying their account by completing one of several survey.

Some of these surveys might be legit, while others are deceptive and try to subscribe users to premium rate mobile services. Either way, they are part of affiliate marketing schemes and earn money for scammers.

The "see your stalkers" or "see your top profile visitors" lures are regularly being reused by scammers which suggests that they are still producing good results for scammers.

Of course, all such claims should be ignored as this feature does not exist on Facebook, partially because it would have serious privacy implications.

Source. Via Softpedia News

Who Viewed My Profile - Clean Your Facebook Profile

Do yourself and your friends a big favor by cleaning your profile of "Who Viewed My Profile" apps (which we wrote about that they are scams designed to clog Facebook with useless stuff and earn money on your expense).

Here is how to do it:

• Open your Facebook settings for apps: On Facebook, click on the cog wheel in the upper-right corner, click on Account Settings, then on Apps (or go directly to this link)
• If you have lots of apps installed, click on "Show all apps" under the list of your installed apps
• Go through the list of apps, and look for apps with names similar with "Who Viewed My Profile" or "Profile Visitors" etc
• For each such app write its name on a piece of paper, then click on the small X to the right of the app, then check the box "Delete all your [app name] activity on Facebook", then click on Remove (see picture below)

You can take it one step further, by blocking the apps you just removed:

• Open your Facebook settings for apps: On Facebook, click on the cog wheel in the upper-right corner, click on Account Settings, then on Blocking (or go directly to this link)
• Scroll down the page until the "Block apps" section
• Type the names of the apps you removed above in the text box. Often only the first few characters of the app name is enough (see screenshot below)

Congratulations, you now have a better Facebook profile, with less spam for you and your friends!