Avoiding and Dealing with Scams on Facebook

There are a number of scams currently proliferating Facebook.  Please don’t click on them.

In no particular order the most common scams are:

1. See who is viewing your profile/visiting your page
2. Dislike button – there is no Facebook approved Dislike button. Period.
3. Visit the new Facebook
4. Wow, this person did this amazing thing! Click on this link to see it! (Whatever the thing might be)
5. Get a free – iPad, iPhone, computer. This message is contained within a post as opposed to in a paid ad on the right side of the page
6. Death pictures of Bin Laden or any other terrorist
7. Photo Tag scamming – a scammer tags you in a photo that involves one of the above
   1. By the way, you should never tag people for a picture they don’t appear in as a way of getting them to look at it. This is very annoying.
8. Event scamming – a scammer invites you to an event that involves one of the above

If you click on any of these items

1. Change your Facebook password
2. Check you computer for malware
3. Warn your friends about whatever it is you clicked on
4. Check your wall to make sure none of the scams are on it
5. Do some research on the item you clicked on, some of the scams aren’t picked up by malware checking software. You might need to take special steps to remove the malware from your computer.

To generally avoid scams

1. Be careful what you click on
2. If you see a friend has a scam on his or her page, warn the person
3. If someone posts a scam on your wall remove it immediately
4. Check your applications to make sure you don’t have any scam/spam related apps.  You do this as follows:
   1. Go to Account
   2. Click on Privacy
   3. Scroll down to Apps and Websites
   4. Click on Edit your Settings
   5. You will see a list called Apps you use
   6. Click on Remove unwanted or spammy apps
   7. Remove any apps you didn’t approve or don’t want or find to have been causing trouble

   Facebook safely out there!