Spam, Wow! How to spot and avoid Facebook scams F acebook is currently the single most popular social networking site, with an im-pressive total of 1.1 billion users worldwide. Whether you are interested in con-necting with old friends, finding new ones, playing online games or promoting your business, Facebook is the place to be. However, not everyone has these harmless intentions in mind when signing up for an account. The large number of users has at-tracted myriad scammers waiting to take advantage of their unsuspecting victims. There are various types of scams and you must be well-informed in order to avoid them. SPAM ANNOYING, BUT USUALLY HARMLESS The most common type of scam that Facebook users encounter is spam. Useless messag-es filled with inaccurate information are being copy/pasted from wall to wall. These may include falsified news and prayer requests from complete strangers. Hacker alerts are also very popular, warning users not to accept friendship requests from certain individu-als because that would compromise their personal information or their computers’ well-being. Other messages urge the user to re-post, claiming that an amount of money is be-ing donated to charity every time these messages are re-posted. Bogus security warnings that supposedly originated from the Facebook Security Team also fall into this category. These messages are totally pointless and may cause a great deal of frustration but they rarely pose a threat. Because they lack time-sensitive information, they continue to circulate even decades after their original release. To identify spam messages you need to apply some critical thinking. Messages written in all-caps that contain endless strings of exclamation marks and grammatical errors are probably not trustworthy. Also, Facebook would certainly not rely on its users’ status updates to spread critical security alerts. Fi-nally, any claim that there is a viable – and ethical – way of tracking how many times a message is being re-posted is completely unsubstantiated. YOU CLICK, SCAMMERS GET PAID Advertisers could not possibly pass up the opportunity to capitalize on the exposure their ads can get on Facebook. While the website allows advertisements to appear on its pages, some individuals or businesses seem to prefer more covert marketing strategies. Their modus operandi is rather simple; you receive a message or wall post that contains a link accompanied by a curiosity-inciting text. Once you click the link, you get redirected to a third-party website where you are asked to register in order to view the content. The website owner can then flood your e-mail inbox with advertisements. Pop-up ads may also appear if your browser’s Pop-up Blocker has not been enabled. Pay-per-click websites work in a similar manner even though they usually require no registration. The mere act of clicking the link creates revenue for the scammer. While this technique is not dangerous per se, it can be used to collect personal information. It can also be harmful for your computer if the website contains malicious script, viruses or add-ons that are launched without your consent. To protect yourself from this type of scam, avoid clicking or copy/pasting suspicious links, especially if you have no idea how they ended up on your wall or inbox. BEWARE OF FREE PRIZES Every now and then, free offers, discount coupons and giveaways from well-known brands appear on Facebook for users to take advantage of. When the user clicks on the relevant link, he is redirected to a third-party website. There, he is asked to complete a series of free surveys in order to claim the prize. These surveys are, of course, fake and they are never successfully completed. Since this method of “verification” fails, the user is prompted to part with valuable personal information or sign up for ridiculously over-priced short message services (SMS) to receive the details of the offer. 22 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | JUNE 2013 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Dr. Stephane Laverdiere is a 1995 graduate of the National University of Health Sciences in Lombard, Illi-nois. He is president and co-founder of Atlas Chiropractic Systems, a pa-perless office solution. He is also founder of the Internet video mar-keting company, ChiroVMail. He can be contacted at 877-602-8527 or [email protected]. Please visit www.atlaschirosys.com and www.chiroVMail.com for more information on digital solutions for your practice. Stephane Laverdiere, DC
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