Chris Gaza posted an update 6 months ago
Black Profile Scam Spreading on Facebook
A scam saying that Facebook users can change their profile pages to have a black, rather than the trademark blue background, is spreading widely on the social network.
This scam is spread by images on news feeds and by event invitations that appear to be sent by users’ friends. IT security and data protection firm, Sophos, is warning users to think twice before clicking on these links, or they could be helping scammers to earn money and spread the scam further.
When this link was investigated from a test account, a number of website redirects ultimately lead to a page landing entitled “Change your Facebook Color”. This page automatically ticks the box saying that the user accepts the page’s terms and conditions, and tells them that they need to take part in an online survey before they can turn their Facebook profile black. The scammers will be earning money for the number of respondents they can entice to complete these surveys.
“It’s interesting to note that the scammers behind this particular campaign are using some webpages also used in previous scams, as several point towards past campaigns such as the ‘Remove Your Facebook Timeline’ scam from earlier this year,” says Brett Myroff, CEO of Sophos distributor, NetXactics.
“Unfortunately, many Facebook users might fall for the scam, enticed by the prospect of changing the look and feel of Facebook and so miss suspicious clues.”
If users have mistakenly clicked on links or accepted invitations as part of this scam, they should remove all offending messages, photos and ‘likes’ from their account, check that they have not authorised a rogue application to access their account – from where it could steal information or post without asking permission – revoke any rogue app’s publishing rights, and report it as spam to Facebook, Myroff advises. http://www.lovespells.me
