6 Tips To Protect Yourself From Facebook Scams

One of the most widespread types of Facebook spam is a wall post that encourages you to install a Facebook application. The application will ask you to agree to allow the application to post on your Wall and your friends’ Facebook pages. By authorizing this, the spam message is then immediately sent to your friends’ Walls.  If a friend sees this message and does the same, they will then see the same spam message on their Wall etc. This is how spam messages can move so rapidly throughout Facebook.

Sadly, a number of these messages are created to trick Facebook users into placing malicious code into the web browser’s address bar, or to encourage you to click on a link in the message that will direct you away from Facebook and lead you to a place where you are at risk of becoming a victim of malicious malware etc.

Facebook does have some security controls and the system is able to detect many of these types of messages before they become out of control on Facebook. Sometimes you may be asked to verify a “Like”, or a warning may display which tells you that a link you are trying to visit has been classified as potentially abusive by Facebook.

With this in mind, here are six tips to help you avoid being tricked by such Facebook wall scams, by showing you how to establish the difference between genuine and spam messages:

1. Study The Message

Consider if it is of a similar type of message to which the particular friend normally posts. If the message appears to be out of character from the person who posted it, do not click on it, as it is very likely that the message was not deliberately sent by your friend.

2. Check Your Facebook News Feed

Is the message suddenly appearing several times? If it is, the likelihood is that it is a scam that is being sent automatically.

3. Be Wary Of Wall Messages That Contain Short Links

If a message that arrives on your Wall contains short links from friends who don’t usually post links on your Wall, be aware of it. This is another type of message that could be considered as out of character for your Facebook friend.

4. Always Verify URLs Before Clicking On Them

In the example of video spam messages, the message may indicate for you to go to YouTube to watch the video. If you move your mouse cursor over the link, look at the details of the link in the footer of your browser, which you are being prompted to click on. This will show you a URL that may look like YouTube but is not the real YouTube.com Web address.

5. Do Not Click If Looks Unfamiliar

If you click the link and are met by an unfamiliar screen and a page you were not expecting it to be, do not click any links or icons that you come across on that page.

6. If In Doubt…Delete!!

As a rule, if the message looks suspicious and you therefore do not feel happy with it, delete it from your Facebook wall.  To do this, move your cursor to the top right by the wall post and wait for an X to appear. Simply click on the X and then choose the option to remove the post.

With in excess of 500 million active users said to be on Facebook, (as reported by the site themselves), it is of little surprise that Facebook is considered to be an ideal platform for scams and spam etc. It is therefore very important that you familiarise yourself with how these Facebook spam messages work, to avoid becoming a victim of them yourself.

If you would like any help with Social Media for your marketing campaign, why not give us a call at Network Intellect.