"Dislike" Button Scam Hits Facebook Users

An anonymous reader writes "A message saying 'I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!' is spreading rapidly on Facebook, tempting unsuspecting users into believing that they will be able to "dislike" posts as well as "like" them. However, security researchers say that it is just the latest 'survey scam', tricking Facebook users into into giving a rogue Facebook application permission to access their profile, and posting spam messages from their account. The rogue application requires victims to complete an online survey (which makes money for the scammers) before ultimately redirecting to a Firefox browser add-on for a Facebook dislike button developed by FaceMod. "As far as we can tell, FaceMod aren't connected with the scam — their browser add-on is simply being used as bait," says Sophos security blogger Graham Cluley."

Comments

Mod the post

[Drakkenmensch]

-1 "Dislike"

Re:Mod the post

[Jurily]

Why should I care about the scuttlebutt of the internet.

Don't know about you, but a lot of my friends use it, and guess who gets to clean up the mess every time they fall for something like this.

Re:Mod the post

[FuckingNickName]

I don't know... are they responsible for themselves?

Oh, that's right, they never have to learn because you'll be there to fix the problem every time.

Re:Mod the post

[jgagnon]

It takes a village to raise an idiot...

Re:Mod the post

[ciderbrew]

Because they get their machines taken over.
A bot-net gets bigger.
A granny can't use her machine.
Evil porn is served up from Teh Gran Machine.
The state kick down Gran's door and take her away.
Gran gets 30 years in jail. She's 96.

I missed out profit & base ownership claims. It is all bad for Gran.

Dislike

[geekgirlandrea]

Can I just have a 'Dislike' button for all of Facebook, please?

Actually, I think I'll take a 'Tactical Nuclear Strike' button instead, now that I think of it.

Re:Dislike

[TheRaven64]

There's a Safari addon called 'defacer' which removes all Facebook buttons and links from every page that you visit (I've not tried it, I just noticed it the other day). Presumably there are similar things for other browsers...

Re:Dislike

[Yvan256]

Actually, I think I'll take a 'Tactical Nuclear Strike' button instead, now that I think of it.

Unable to comply. Ghost Academy required.

And?

[meisenst]

This is not new news, really. There is always some scam going around that takes advantage of the inability of most users to distinguish untrusted content from trusted content, not to mention the people who click Yes to every pop-up without understanding what they've just done.

Facebook is a gold mine for scams like this. There are way too many people using the site that don't care about the dangers. Apathy and ignorance are best ways to spread this kind of thing, and they are found aplenty in any social networking crowd, at least when it comes to the technology behind the social aspect.

Re:And?

[Securityemo]

It's not that they don't care, it's that they can't percieve what's real content and not - because they don't have a model of the underlying structure beyond the surface of the content.

In other news

[should_be_linear]

3295671st variation of "I love you" malware appeared online affecting mostly dumb BFUs.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Facebook is a Ponzi scheme

[Abcd1234]

Uhuh. The you don't know what a Ponzi scheme is, and it's the *facebook* users that are the morons... riiiight.

Re:It's not a Facebook problem

[natehoy]

The scam hits everyone who uses Facebook, regardless of your browser, if you fall for it.

At the END of falling for the scam, after you've coughed up your survey answers and subscribed to the application, you would then be directed to a Firefox plugin (which was not developed by the people who are perpetrating the scam), at which point you could only install the plugin if you have Firefox.

By then, the scam authors couldn't give a shit whether you can use the plugin. It's not theirs, it's just something they found and used to give their scan a razor-thin veneer of respectability. I won't argue about the utility of the plug-in, because it has nothing to do with the scam.

!news

[TrisexualPuppy]

This article isn't really news. It seems that there is *always* something like this happening. Facebook is the perfect place for scams to happen. It's basically the new AOL.

You have many amateur users who don't understand the first thing about security, and you have millions of them. Millions! Make something that looks slightly "official," and you've got it made. (Remember the old antivirus popups on websites?)

We basically have a conglomerated database of targets for any exploit in a system that changes its layouts and features so frequently that no one can ever recognize that something looks a little off...

The blame here is Facebook's.

[DamienNightbane]

The bottom line is that this scam wouldn't be possible if Facebook had implemented a real dislike button years ago when people demanded one.

Re:Loathing for facebook.

[arkane1234]

it's great for coordinating IRL activities like parties, birthdays, the nicer kind of activism, etc...

So was MySpace, your point?
Most of the hate about Facebook is that they are hypocritical and do not care about the values of humans. They will lie to you to get you to post private data up, make it appear as of your privatizing it, then make it so it's public. They'll also harvest (farm? data mine?) information and sell it.
Other than that, they're great. Uh huh.