Facebook has been overrun by spam and scams for the last few days. The jury is still out as to whether malware and/or viruses are also being spread through these messages. Some are saying that many of these are coming in through third-party apps. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.
You may be wondering how to “fix” your account if you are the victim of this type of post. There are several things you should do on both Facebook and Twitter, which are explained below:
Facebook:
1) Report the post to Facebook. If the post looks like it came from a friend, report the post to the friend and advise them to also report it to Facebook.
How to report scam/spam posts:
- Hover your cursor over the top right corner of the post
- A drop down box will appear. Click “Report story or spam.” This will delete the post from your wall.
- Another box will pop up. The sentence “If the story is abusive, please file a report.” will appear as a link. Click the link.
- A box will pop up with several options; click the one that says “Report as spam/scam”. There is also an option to choose if you believe your friend’s account has been hacked.
2.) Run a virus scan on your computer.
3.) Double-check Apps that you’ve authorized and delete those that you don’t actually use. To remove app permissions:
- Go to Privacy Settings.
- Scroll down to Apps and Websites. Click Edit Settings.
- Here you’ll see the number of apps you’ve authorized; click Edit Settings.
- Check the list and delete any apps you don’t remember authorizing or that you don’t use any longer. To do this, just click the X to the right of the app name.
- Once you’ve deleted all unnecessary apps, return to the previous page where you’ll see options for editing how people bring your information into apps they use and edit those settings as well.
- While you’re on this page, it’s a good idea to also check out Instant Personalization and Public Search (this will show you how your profile appears to people who view it via search engines).
4.) Change your password. Make your new password strong by including numbers and special characters (!, @, %, etc). Also be sure that your social media account passwords are different from passwords for any other accounts.
Twitter:
1.) Delete the tweet.
2.) Run a virus scan.
3.) Change your password from the Passwords Tab in your Account Settings.
4.) Revoke app permissions by going to the Applications tab, also in Account Settings.
5.) If trusted apps remain that use your Twitter login, update your password on those apps so that you don’t get locked out of those accounts for failed login attempts.
6.) Once these steps have been taken, your account should be secure.
7.) If you’re still experiencing issues with your account, file a Support Request with Twitter.
UPDATE: Facebook is investigating all of the nuisance/malicious posts from the past few days and trying to determine the source (you can read the article from Sophos here ). That being said, there will always be a few hackers that get through, so the steps outlined above are always good to have on hand. Facebook suggests three things that users can do to keep this from happening again:
1.) Never copy and paste into your browser or click on a link if you are not positive of the source (especially if it’s a link offering a prize or free gift).
2.) Always be sure your browser is up-to-date
3.) Always report any suspicious posts to Facebook.
Have you been deluged with any spammy or nasty posts in the last few days? Have you considered deleting your account because of it? Let us know in the comment section below! We want to hear from you!
Why Unsubscribing from Friends’ Comments and Likes Won’t Keep You Safe from Hackers – And What You Should Do Instead
Raise your hand if you’ve seen (or posted) the following Facebook status update:
“Hello friends, I like to keep my FB private except to those I am friends with. So if you all would do the following, I’d appreciate it. With the new FB timeline on its way this week for EVERYONE, please do both of us a favor. Hover over my name above. In a few seconds you’ll see a box that says : “Subscribed”. Hover over that, then go to “comments and likes” and un-check it, by clicking on it. That will stop my posts and yours to me from showing up on the bar side for everyone to see, but most importantly it limits hackers from invading our profiles. If you repost this I will do the same for you. You’ll know I’ve acknowledged you because if you tell me that you’ve done it I’ll “like” it.”
Yep, that’s what I thought! I see a lot of hands out there! This has been spreading like wildfire for the past week or so. I’ve seen it countless times myself.
There are a few problems with these instructions:
So what should you do? Can you disable Timeline? Disable the ticker? How do you protect yourself from hackers?
Timeline
First things first. You cannot disable Timeline (frankly, I don’t understand why you’d want to…it’s beautiful and gives you more options than ever!). There are posts going around on Facebook saying, “click here to disable Timeline”. Please don’t be fooled by this! This is a scam to get you to “like” the scammers’ pages and some of them are asking people to download a browser extension that may, in fact, do damage to your system. For the complete story on this, please click here to read the facts from The Next Web.
That Blasted Ticker!
You can disable the ticker according to AllFacebook.com. Click here for instructions on how to disable the Ticker. I’ll add the disclaimer that I haven’t tried to disable the ticker yet, but I trust AllFacebook so if they say this is how to do it, it is.
It’s Up to You: Passwords
Keeping your account safe from hackers isn’t all that hard – but it has nothing to do with the ticker or Timeline. Here are some suggestions:
It’s Up to You: Check Those Privacy Settings
If you’re concerned about people you don’t know seeing your posts, comments, likes, etc. simply change your Privacy settings. This is easily done by clicking on the arrow at the top of your news feed, to the right of the word Home. Click on Privacy Settings, which will take you to this page:
Also on the Privacy Settings page, you’ll see an option called “How Tags Work“. Here you can set it so that you can review and approve tags (of photos and posts) before they show up on your Timeline as well as limiting who can see those tags. Another option there is enabling/disabling being “checked in” to places by friends.
At the bottom of the page, you’ll also notice an option to “Limit the Audience for Past Posts”. Click that and a box will pop up to help you change all of your old posts to Friends only. You can also remove old posts from within your Timeline by scrolling down to the post you want to remove, hover over the post, click on the pencil icon and delete it completely.
You can limit who sees your posts on a post-by-post basis by clicking on the icon to the left of the Post button on the status update box on news feed or within Timeline. See picture below:
I hope this post helps you realize that you actually do have a lot of control over who sees what on Facebook. I also hope that posts like this will convince people to double-check information before re-posting on Facebook. If we all take a minute or two to do some research before re-posting we will all be better informed and our news feeds won’t be cluttered by what is essentially spam.
If you’d like daily information, tips, etc. regarding Facebook and other social media platforms please “like” the Seek Media Group page on Facebook by clicking here. I make it my business to keep abreast of hoaxes, scams, and security measures – among many other things – and post them on my company page every day.
If there is anything else you’d like information about, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer it for you! And…please let me know if you found this post helpful!