New Facebook Scam Plays On Your Ego
In the world of online scams, the length that people will go to knows no bounds. Recently, a new Facebook scam that is designed to get your profile information, bomb you with spam and potentially expose you to malware and other bad boys of the Internet, has found it’s way onto the scene. The worst part of this newest Facebook scam is that it plays on your ego to gain access.
The scam is being spread primarily through status updates, and is showing up quickly across the platform. It purports to allow you to see just exactly how many people have viewed your Facebook profile, and not much else. Still, people are allowing the scam access to their information, and the scam is growing legs at a very rapid pace.
When it comes to knowing how many Facebook views you have, the urge is fairly strong to take a look. It is natural to want to know who is looking and why when it comes to our profiles. Former boyfriends, girlfriends and others are often searching out our profiles, and the urge to find out who is doing so is strong. The perpetrators of this latest Facebook scam are banking on our urge to take a peek at who is watching. That voyeurism is certainly a creative way to trick us. It draws on a natural human tendency—vanity.
Several names are being used including ProfileSpy and Pro Check, and the scam offers you these insights in exchange for your completing a survey and allowing them access to your information. It would seem that this Facebook scam would scare people immediately, but that is not the case with many people. The scam has been growing and shows no signs of slowing down.
Many people see these applications and automatically assume they are from Facebook themselves. That is rarely the case, and Facebook does not have full control over the apps that find their way onto the site. No matter what, you should always question Facebook apps that feel wrong in any way.
Many of these applications will appear from out of the blue, and you will notice some things that do not feel right. Many people take the attitude of letting an application be on the site for quite some time before they even consider using it or allowing it. This is a safer approach as you are allowing the rest of the Internet to do the risking in your place.
Keep your eyes open for this dangerous application. While ProfileSpy and Pro Check are the two most common names circulating, they are not the only ones. If you are unsure about an application, then simply leave it be for safety. No application is worth getting a computer loaded down with spam and exposing your information and computer to problems. Ask questions before using any application and make sure you are on top of what is going on with it. Every Facebook application can be easily searched online to see if there are complaints about it, and this one is no exception.
Rodney Southern is a freelance writer working for EduBook. Rodney enjoys reading and commenting on the latest technology articles.
Myspace was rife with this kind of stuff… years b4 facebook accepted anyone that wasn’t a college student…
I blogged on some of the facebook shenanigans myself, a few months ago…
http://webmaster-forums.blogspot.com/2010/10/facebook-privacy.html
It’s good to see another warning about those apps…
“Access my basic information
Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I’ve shared with everyone.”
Scary stuff…
I came across something last night that took the scams to a new level.
I received an inboxmessage from a friend. It stated that she had the same house alarm as me and wanted to change her combination but wasn’t sure how to reset it. Could I please send my code ad she would try that.
Turns out her phone had been stolen and the thief was essentially trying to get the house codes of her friends in order to burgle their homes.
Scary stuff huh?