Category Archives: Avoid Facebook Email Scams

Avoid Facebook Email Scams, Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Scams

Facebook Scams: How to spot them

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When any social media ‘comes of age’, there are certain to be scammers who want to take advantage of the people who use it. Facebook has been around for a long time, we all know that, and there are hundreds of scams out there which are set up to trick you out of information and/or your password(s). Here’s how to spot some of them:

1. The most important thing to remember is this: If it’s sounds too good to be true, it probably is. No one is offering anything for free. You can’t get a free iPhone, a free Walmart gift card or any other thing by clicking on a link on Facebook. Use your head! Has Walmart or Apple ever given anything away for free?  Don’t fall for any free gift links, any free vacation links or anything that even resembles this. Nothing is free, certainly not anything that you find on Facebook.

2. If you take a link that leads you outside of Facebook, you’re on your own. While you are in Facebook, certain secure conditions exist. If you click on a link that takes you out of Facebook, specially one that asks you for your Facebook password or your email password, close the browser window and move on.

3. If you get an email that looks like it’s from Facebook, it almost certainly isn’t. First, Facebook knows your name and would use it in any email that they might send you.  Second, your privacy settings can be set so that Facebook can only contact you via your mobile phone or another email account besides the one you log in with. If your account has been hacked, there are ways to know this. Again, use your head. Don’t randomly click on links that you get in emails.

4. There are two sites that you can use to check things out. OK, three, if you count this site.

Snopes.com is where you can check out urban legends, rumors and myths of all kinds. If you’ve seen photos of ‘sick children’ on Facebook, Snopes will tell you how long that particular scam has been around. Bookmark this site and use it to check out things that seem suspicious on Facebook.

Photo of Snopes logo.
Use Snopes to check out scams, myths and rumors.

Thatsnonsense.com (here is their Facebook page: That’sNonsense.com) is something that we discovered when we were checking out a Facebook scam.

Photo of Nonsense logo
Check out Facebook scams here.

You have to wade through many posts but there is lots of info here about all current Facebook spoofs. The latest is this one:

Quoted from a post on Facebook:

Hello, my FB friends: I want to stay PRIVATELY connected with you. I post photos of my family that I don’t want strangers to have access to!!! However, with the recent changes in FB, the “public” can now see activities in ANY wall. This happens when our friend hits “like” or “comment” ~ automatically, their friends would see our posts too. Unfortunately, we can not change this setting by ourselves …because Facebook has configured it this way. PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT CLICK), a window will appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS” (also without clicking), then down to “Settings”, click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on “COMMENTS & LIKE” and also “PHOTOS”. By doing this, my activity among my friends and family will no longer become public. Now, copy and paste this on your wall. Once I see this posted on your page I will do the same. Thanx

End of quote.

This paragraph is being spread all over Facebook. As you know, if you have followed us for a while, this doesn’t work. The only way you can limit posts and comments is to control your privacy settings NOT by adjusting a friend’s news feed. How would you know this? Most likely because your friend, unless they are a computer expert and a pretty good writer, would not be able to write something like this. Second, if you uncheck photos and comments, how would you be able to see those photos and comments anyway? The person who posts this obviously doesn’t know how to set their privacy controls. We do! Follow our posts and we’ll keep you up to date on all everything to do with Facebook, scams, spam and phishing. We try to simplify your life as much as we can.

If you have questions about something that you see on Facebook, let us know. We’ll track down the answer for you.

Thanks for reading!

Avoid Facebook Email Scams, Data Use Policy Update, Facebook

Facebook Changes the Rules

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Facebook will send you an email today, November 22, 2012. Here’s what the email looks like, just in case you think it’s not really from Facebook:

Photo of Facebook Email 1
This is the real thing, an email from Facebook.

 

There is a link inside the email, here it is: https://www.facebook.com/fbsitegovernance  The link leads to a Facebook page titled : Facebook Site Governance. Even though the email only went out today, 2.4 million Facebook users have ‘liked’ the page. Go figure.

The information that Facebook wants you to read is on the Documents box or ‘tab’, as they call it. Here’s a shot of it:

Photo of Facebook Email 2
Click on the Documents box to read the new rules.

Read the next page carefully. It outlines the changes and contains some interesting wording. Here’s something that we have mentioned before but you should take note of it now:  “Reminders about what’s visible to other people on Facebook. For instance, when you hide things from your timeline, those posts are visible elsewhere, like in news feed, on other people’s timelines, or in search results.”  Even though we try to help you hide things on Facebook, even Facebook tells you that those things may be visible elsewhere. You’be been warned.

The links to the changes are down at the bottom. If you want to read about the changes now, click on the top link in each group of two links. The ‘Redline’ link leads to a page which allows you to download the ‘redlined’ version of the changes. Basically, this is a .pdf file that shows each change from the last site governance. The changes are in red. Here’s what they look like:

Photo of Facebook Email 3
See what ‘redline’ means?

 

Read the redlined pages carefully. Make sure you know what Facebook is doing with your data and what they are sharing with their advertisers (basically Google).

Two things bother us about this email. With all of the fake Facebook emails that we get almost every day, why would Facebook not use your Facebook name at the top of this message? PayPal uses your name when they send you an email, just so you know it’s from them, right? There are plenty of fake PayPal emails but when a company uses your name in a message, you can be pretty sure that it’s what it says it is. Secondly, most Americans are on holiday today and will be for the next few days. It’s Thanksgiving in the United States. If this message from Facebook was so vitally important, why would they send it out on the very day that most of its recipients will be doing something else? Call us sceptics but we think that Facebook doesn’t really want its user to actually read about these changes. What do you think?

While we like Facebook, we don’t trust Facebook. We think the company is irresponsible and totally lacking any kind of moral responsibility to it’s millions of users. Facebook is a business, plain and simple, only interested in money, not the safety and privacy of the people who use it. Remember that. Have fun with Facebook but don’t share things that you wouldn’t share with a complete stranger.

Comments, questions and tips are always welcome.

Thanks for reading! Here’s a link to our Facebook page. Keep track of our posts by liking it.  Computers Made Simple on Facebook

Avoid Facebook Email Scams, Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks

Best Protection for Facebook Hacking

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If you’re concerned about the security of your Facebook account, here’s how to eliminate the biggest threat. It’s easy, fast and once you set it up, you can rest a lot easier knowing that one route into your account has been plugged.

Facebook loves to send you emails. If you let Facebook have it’s way, your inbox would be chock full of notifications about this and that. Right now, there are many email scams out there. You might get an email that looks like it’s from Facebook, but it’s a very clever attempt to get your password in order to hijack your account. Here’s how to stop those emails in their tracks:

1. From any page on Facebook, look up on the top right and click on the arrow beside Home to bring down this menu:

Photo of Facebook Account Settings menu
Click on Account Settings

2. Once you are there, click on Account Settings then Notifications and you’ll see this menu next:

Photo showing notifications in Facebook Account Settings
Notifications is the one you want now.

3.Start with clicking on the word Edit to the right of Facebook. This is what you’ll see:

Photo of Facebook Account Settings showing unchecked boxes
This is what you want the menu to look like, all boxes unchecked.

4. If you use Facebook every day, why do you need an email to tell you that something has happened inside Facebook? You’re going to sign in and see the notices anyway, why do you need a follow-up email? We would strongly advise you to uncheck every box here.

5. Move down the list for each of the sections: Photos, Groups, Notes, Pages and so on. Make sure each box in each section is unchecked.

6. Now, look up on the top left for the word Apps and click on it. This is what you’ll see next:

Apps Menu in Facebook Account Settings
Make sure that the Apps never notify you.

7. Here you will see that we have prevented Words With Friends from notifying us. See the word ‘never’ on the bottom right? Make sure that is showing and click Close to ensure that you will not get any notices from this app. Move down the list and do the same for every app that you use.

You’re done! Now, you won’t get any email from Facebook. Whatever email comes to your inbox or your junk box will be a scam. Guaranteed. If you follow our directions here, you’ll be safe from phishing emails. Phishing is where an email tries to get information from you in order to hijack your Facebook or your bank account.

If you still want Facebook to email you, you’re on your own. You risk getting tricked by one of these clever emails. Good luck! It’s scary out there sometimes.

Thanks for reading!