Urgent Facebook Scam Alert

URGENT SCAM ALERT - "DISLIKE" BUTTON.

Yet again scammers are taking advantage of social media user’s general acceptance of everything they discover on social media sites. The latest rehashed scam is to offer Facebook users an opportunity to download a “dislike” button. This rides on the back of the recent speculation that Facebook may introduce the feature soon however, yet again, the origin of the story has been taken out of context. It is unlikely to be an actual “dislike” button as this could be used to downgrade “likes” of fan pages by competitors and trolls. The button, should it ever arise, will likely address the concern that when someone posts tragic news such as a death of a loved one, pressing “like” is considered inappropriate.

At any rate the general acceptance is that a “dislike” button in whatever form is on the near horizon and it is this perception that scammers are exploiting. Links via email, Facebook posts and even SMS are doing the rounds offering an opportunity to download “the official dislike butting” with an extra carrot advising you that you can finally show your disapproval for rubbish posts. A number of these fake offers are surfacing with various endgames. Some invite users to fill in online surveys before the download starts – this is usually attached to a timer forcing you to act quickly without thinking consequences through. The survey is monetized which means the referring website or post (the scammer) will earn money for every successful completion of a survey. The surveys are usually legit and users happily fill them in with the promise of the download at the end. The download never happens of course – with a possible message of “oops – something went wrong … try again later”. You might well try again and fill in another survey. Ka-ching! More money for the scam artist. This is probably the least intrusive to the victim but still, it cannot sit well knowing that you have contributed to the coffers of criminal networks for falling for this version of the scam.

Other more malicious versions will install a Trojan virus which access your Facebook friends and group list and will start spreading sex videos, vulgar posts and such to your friend’s timelines and on your group’s walls and pages without the victim even realising it. Then you get booted or blocked by friends and admin and don’t even know why. Even more nasty versions will upload spyware, malware and the latest scammer favourite, ransomware. Ransomware is a rogue programme will aggressively shut down your computer with a message showing on your screen with a timed ransom demand. The victim is instructed to pay a certain amount via Bitcoin (because it is untraceable to the end users) for a decryption key which even if paid within the usual 72 - 96 hours may not result in the decryption key being given and will most certainly result in major data loss.

The moral of the story is two-fold. Firstly there is NO dislike button as yet and when (or if) it does get released will happen via official Facebook channels. Secondly NEVER complete surveys in exchange for a service as there is likely a scam at the end of that tunnel. Scams work because of misinformation and lack of knowledge and the best way to combat them is through spreading the correct information, so please share and like this article. Sharing knowledge is absolutely the best way to fight scammers.

#ransomware #urgent #dislike