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Users Can't Distinguish Scams From Facebook's Features

Posted by timothy on from the deeper-lessons dept.

Anyone who's seen social media sites like Facebook has probably also seen scam ads that promise new features or insider access to the sites themselves. rudy_wayne writes Zdnet reports that a new whitepaper from antivirus company Bitdefender, which examined 850,000 Facebook scams over two years, shows that Facebook's own user experience enables these scams to flourish. The researchers found that scammers have infected millions of users with the same tricks over and over again — just repackaged. The most common tricks, such as 'Guess who viewed your profile (45.5 percent)' and 'change your background color' (29.53 percent) rely on a combination of the obsessions encouraged by the Facebook experience, and a general lack of understanding about Facebook's functionality — which, as most users know, is a constantly moving target. Users would be none the wiser that a given scam isn't just a new "feature" or another of Facebook's psychological experiments being done on users.

6 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Facebook is the scam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The others are just playing catch-up

    1. Re:Facebook is the scam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Advertisements themselves are a scam that we have come to accept.

      The very fact that one needs to disclose that they are advertisements shows the problem.

  2. The only way to win the game... by Mysticalfruit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is to not play at all.

    --
    Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
  3. Facebook indistinguishable from a scam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't tell Facebook vs a scam... both ask for personal information, promise a fantastic experience that is never delivered, and sell my personal information for a profit...
    I can see why people struggle to differentiate the two.

  4. Explanation is VERY simple by gurps_npc · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Facebooks demands a huge invasion of privacy for a rather minimal set of features. Basically, you can get everything it offers elsewhere, for free, just giving up the 'single sign in', that lets them track you across everything. In other words, Facebook is itself a scam.

    So it is not surprising that people that willing accept one scam, can not distinguish other scams from the official, approved scam they intentionally use.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  5. Re:Why the surprised look? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It is that way every election, whether the winners are (D) or (R). The scam is that people think that there is substantive differences between the party that is taking our rights quickly or the one taking them away slowly. But enjoy your cake an circuses.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.