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"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."
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.
Green's Law of Debate: Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking about.
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.
It takes a village to raise an idiot...
Remember to maintain your supply of
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.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
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...