Clickjacking on Facebook is just one more scam

This has been a busy week for Facebook scams. Cell phone accounts are charged $ 5 a week with the “Share” button on Facebook with the new clickjacking scam. The Facebook clickjacking scam emerged a few days following the Facebook dislike button scam. These scams try to use, much like the likejacking scam of last May, buttons that aren’t actually there. These scams can very easily be avoided if you know which red flags to search for. Source for this article – Facebook clickjacking joins growing list of social network scams by Personal Money Store.

Facebook clickjacking

The Facebook clickjacking scam uses the Share feature that posts content to the profile wall where friends are encouraged to click on it. PC World shows how the scam works saying:

A user clicks a link to a Facebook page for “10 Funny T-Shirt Fails” for example. Once on the page, a message says Facebook’s new three-step human verification process is required to see the content. On step two, users are asked to click the “Next” button. The Next button is a dummy. Hidden underneath is a real Share button. When users click Next to get to the final step, they actually post that page to their profile wall. Lured to step three, users are asked for personal information to enter a contest. Among other things, the survey asks for a cell phone number. Down in the survey’s fine print it says providing the data tacks an extra $ 5 per week onto the users cell phone bill for a service called “The Awesome Test.”

Dislike button scam for Facebook

Facebook users wanted a dislike button making for the Facebook dislike button scam. Facebook has so far avoided having a “dislike” button. According to Walletpop, spyware for identity theft is downloaded when pressing a “Dislike” button that does not really exist. The message “Get the official DISLIKE button now,” is given with a link for the bogus button. Next you go to the fake page to “install” the button. If there really was a dislike button, it wouldn’t have to be installed. To install, the scam prompts users to allow the application to run. Then they are asked to complete a survey — the very same trick used in the Facebook clickjacking scam.

Check for Facebook scams

Facebook decided any fan page that had the clickjacking scam somehow a part of it would be removed. Call your cell phone company if you did the survey. Scam patterns are easy to acknowledge for Facebook users, says Reuters. Be intelligent and skeptical about it all. Everyone who’s doing something out of the ordinary with their status updates would be a good clue. Pay attention to time elapsed since the status update was written and how it was delivered. Facebook won’t need apps like the “Official Dislike Button” for its own stuff. A scam can be recognized when a user has left the Facebook site.

Additional reading

PC World

pcworld.com/article/203546/facebook_warns_of_clickjacking_scam.html?tk=hp_new

Wallet Pop

walletpop.com/blog/2010/08/16/dislike-button-on-facebook-a-scam/

Reuters

reuters.com/article/idUS162937196620100817