Friday, April 29, 2011

Top Profile Viewers scam

A new scam has reared its ugly head on Facebook this month. The Top Profile Viewers app claims to let you see who on Facebook has visited your profile, however this is (a) a violation of the Facebook Terms of Service and (b) not technically feasible.

When you click the link to Top Profile Viewers, you will be prompted to fill out a questionnaire and required to click through a link 'to verify your account'. Finally, your friends on Facebook will be spammed with invitations to click the link too.

The purpose of this scam is to (a) gather personal information about you, (b) gain a commission when you click through their link and (c) propagate the scam on to your friends.

If you have clicked the link, you should go through your feed and remove any references to the scam and also remove the event that has been posted to your wall.

For more information about this scam, please consult the links below.

http://www.facebookfakes.com/?p=341
http://www.facecrooks.com/safety-center/scam-watch/item/1257-scam-alert-my-top-profile-viewers
http://romcartridge.blogspot.com/2010/01/is-it-possible-to-know-who-views-your.html

The next time you think about downloading the next free widget, remember that if you're not paying for it you are not the customer. You're the product.