ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – With more than a billion users on Facebook, it’s a prime breeding ground for scams and hoaxes. The Facebook hoax that refuses to go away is the claim that Mark Zuckerberg is giving away 45 million dollars in Facebook stock to users who copy and paste the message onto their timeline. That’s never going to happen.
When it comes to a list of most annoying Facebook posts everyone can name a few, but none may be more annoying than veiled scams or hidden hoaxes. If one of your well-intentioned Facebook friends says Costco, Starbucks or any other company is giving away free gift cards if you click a link, you’ll only end up spamming all of your contacts. Instead, go to the company’s actual Facebook page to see if they’re actually doing a give-away.
How many of these copyright notices have you seen on your feed? This doesn’t magically protect your privacy or copyright all your posts. There’s already a strict law that does that for you.
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And are there really apps that will let you see who’s viewing your profile, or add a “dislike” button, or change your Facebook color? None of these apps exist. Scammers often insert malware in the plugins.
If you fall for a Facebook scam make sure you delete any bad app that attached itself to your account. To do that… go to the small gear on the top right of your Facebook screen. Select “account settings” then click “apps” and see if there are any you didn’t authorize.
Also beware of messages that look like they were sent by Facebook security … don’t click on the link. Often times you’ll notice that the words “Facebook security” will be spelled with non-traditional characters so the scammers can bypass the Facebook filters, but this is a dead giveaway if you know to watch for it.
Contributors to this news report include: Jessica Sanchez, producer; and Jesse Draus, editor and videographer.