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Caller ID Spoofing

September 21, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Caller ID spoofing, or phone number spoofing, is important to understand. If you’re not familiar with this practice, let me explain:

Caller ID Is Fallible

When you receive a phone call, most phones display some identification about the inbound call. You may see:

First Name, Last Name, Area Code and Phone Number
Business Name, Area Code and Phone Number
Private
Unknown Caller

You need to know: The info shown on your Caller ID can be altered. Both the number and the name on your Caller ID display could be inaccurate or untrue. It is easy and often free for someone to change (spoof) their Caller ID info.

Legality

Phone call spoofing, as a practice, is legal in our country. But using spoofing to defraud or cause harm is illegal. If this gives you some pause, if you’re wondering why spoofing is legal at all, consider some possible legitimate uses:

Law enforcement may need to alter their identity as they investigate crimes.
Collections agents might spoof their Caller ID info so that a debtor won’t avoid their calls.
A doctor or counselor may spoof their number when calling a patient to maintain a crucial level of privacy.
Friends might use Caller ID spoofing for pranking each other, without causing harm.

Scammers!

Of course, the main point of this post is to talk about scams, and make you alert to them. Scammers love to use Caller ID spoofing when they call their potential victims. They know that people tend to believe what they read, especially when it flashes by quickly. Robocallers and spammers also use phone spoofing, but the biggest danger is from scams like these:

Caller ID shows the name of a US Court System or the IRS, and the caller says you need to pay off your fine/charges now, or be incarcerated.
Apple/Microsoft/Amazon/Facebook Support shows on the Caller ID, and a robocall tells you that your account has had suspicious activity on it. Press 1 to be connected to an agent who will help (steal) your account.
Your bank shows on the Caller ID, and they are calling to reset your PIN and password, as someone has tried to hack into your accounts.

To be absolutely clear, the above examples are scams. The IRS, Microsoft, your bank, etc. are NOT going to call you for account changes or payments. Please hang up if you ever answer a call like these!

Scams of all kinds use spoofing to make their calls show the same area code and exchange as your number. This is called Neighbor Spoofing. They make their number look very close to your number, so that you think it is someone local to you and might answer more quickly.

It is also possible for someone to spoof your exact phone number. This can be done to confuse you and get you to answer. But it can also be done to deflect blame to you. If you ever get angry calls from other people, telling you to stop with the spam calls, understand that a bad actor may be using your number in their spoofing scheme.

How to Defend Against Call Spoofing

You’re doing it right now. Maintaining awareness that Caller ID is not to be trusted is the best defense against Caller ID spoofing. After that, you can consider some extra tactics:

Talk to your phone provider and see if they offer/recommend any particular call screening options or apps with spoofing protection.
Put your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry.
Don’t answer unfamiliar numbers. Let every unexpected mystery call roll to voicemail.
Report persistent spoofing problems to your phone carrier and/or the police.

Commonplace Facebook Scams

September 18, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

There is no end to the scams I see on Facebook. I know I’ve posted at length about specific FB scams, but in this post, I want to run down quickly on a bunch of commonplace Facebook scams. Watch out for these, don’t fall for these, definitely report these:

(Don’t) Buy This Shirt!

This offer may tug at your heartstrings, because they’ve mentioned their son is autistic. But there is no son, and the poster is from another country. The URL will take you to a web-storefront, where you can pay money for a shirt. But it’s at an online marketplace where anyone can quickly open up a shop and have shirts printed:

You might actually get a (lousy) shirt, but please realize that you’re giving your card info to a stranger who may be halfway around the world. The big risk here is getting mystery charges on your card, later on.

Neon for Free

Want a neon sign? You’re not going to get one from these jokers. Their plan is to privately message you, gently guilt you towards making a small donation, and then disappear with any money you’ve sent them.

Vendor Fee for Non-Existent Fair

Looking to sell your hand-crafted art in your region? Community fairs and festivals are the way to go, but beware generic scam posts as shown below.

While at first glance, these may look legitimate, it’s a lie and a trap. The poster has used Google to find an address commonly used for public events. Any email or phone number provided is not connected to the stated address; they go straight to the scammer. They’ve crafted this post so that people will contact the scammer and not the venue. And if you contact the scammer, they’ll take your “reservation fee” and disappear with it.

Egg Sales

I’ve picked this scam apart before, but it deserves a mention, since I’ve seen it often this month. It’s similar to the above scam, in that they want to privately message you and get an advance payment for eggs. But you’ll be sitting by the door waiting forever for that henfruit. The poster is just using a sock puppet account, as they sit in an internet cafe in Kenya.

Giving Away a Gaming Console

Those PS5’s are super-expensive, so seeing someone giving away one for free on Facebook may seem like a miracle. And even more convincing is to see someone local, someone believable!, posting about how you can have their unwanted video game hardware:

But this type of scam is usually carried out using a stolen Facebook account. If you contact them for the console, they’ll say that they moved to another state, but can Fedex the device to you, as long as you cover their shipping. Once again, if you send them any money, they’ll ghost you and you’ll never get anything in return.

Moving, Everything Must Go

If a real person has to move and sell off a lot of stuff, they’ll give you an address to visit, and a phone number to reach them at. But some posts only lead to private messages, where you are urged to pay a small amount to “hold” the item for you. I think by now you know what’ll happen if you give them any money.

And other “moving” posts lead you to other weird websites or private Facebook groups, where you’ll meet with other scams and attempts at collecting your personal information.

Fake Job Listing

If you think you’ve found your dreamjob on Facebook, think again. Many of them are traps:

A real job listing should state a well-known company name, and will refer you to Indeed.com or some other corporate website. This scam job listing has no real contact info, and will only lead to a fake job interview over chat, and then they’ll try to get your bank account info or worse.

Telltale Signs of a Facebook Scam

The poster has a locked account, or has turned off Comments to their post.
They need you to pay them a little bit of money first, to prove that you are not scamming them!
They won’t meet you in person for a transaction.
You cannot call to speak with them.
They want you to use Venmo or CashApp instead of a credit card.
You meet with resistance when asking for basic info, like a website URL or address or phone number.
They comment a link to a website, but the URL shows a Google sites address, or something that just doesn’t look relevant.

Free Audio Editing Software

September 14, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 1 Comment

For those looking to edit audio files, or mix and create digital music files, please consider these open source options. There are a lot of free audio editing software options out there!

Audacity is the mainstay for editing and recording, and is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. It looks like you might even get this to install on a Chromebook. And they still offer legacy downloads that may work on very old computers.

LMMS is comparable to Audacity, but more for editing and not recording. It’s available Windows, MacOS and Linux.

GarageBand is for Apple devices only, and is a digital audio workstation, like LMMS. You can get it for your Apple computer or iOS device, but it is not available for Windows computers. If you encounter anyone offering GarageBand for PCs, beware, it is likely a scam or a virus!

WaveShop is like Audacity, but old-school. Try this one if you like the retro feel, or if you have a very old Windows computer that can’t handle newer software.

Mixxx is more for DJs and mixing together audio tracks. It works on Windows, MacOS and Linux.

Mail2World ↔ Gmail Problems

September 11, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 1 Comment

If you use Shentel (or other Mail2World) email, you might notice that you can’t get an email to go through to someone’s Gmail address. Or maybe a Gmail user is telling you that they can’t send email to you at your Shentel.net address. I’ve seen Mail2World ↔ Gmail Problems off and on for many years now. Here are Too Many Words™ about why that is:

Email Authentication

As email flies around the globe, it runs through many checks and authentication. Mail servers scan email for legitimacy, spam content and other safety concerns. These authorization methods are a bit above my paygrade to discuss in detail, but the main ones are called SPF, DKIM and DMARC. You can look them up and read about them, if that’s your cup of tea.

Google takes security seriously. They are very strict with their email authentication, and they frequently improve their server security. Due to Google’s size, when they raise the bar for email authentication, it affects the entire world. Other providers take notice and follow suit whenever Google makes a change to their email protocols. If email providers don’t update their email security to match Google, some legitimate email may be marked as spam. Other email may simply not get through.

The Email Block

And here we get to a problem I frequently see with Shentel email and other Mail2World-offered email addresses. It goes both ways:

Gmail user sends a message to a Shentel address, and receives an Undeliverable message in response.
Shentel mail user sends a message to a Gmail address, and receives an Failed_Precondition message in response.

You can always try sending your email in a different way. Log into a different browser or a different email app. Try using the webmail site, if you haven’t already. Go to a different computer or device. If the problem persists across multiple pieces of technology, then the problem is not yours and it’s out of your hands.

What to Do About It

If you’ve got Mail2World ↔ Gmail Problems, it is Mail2World’s fault. M2W needs to update & fix their email security. For anyone impacted by this, please consider these options:

Call Shentel tech support at 1-800-SHENTEL and report the details of your email error messages.
Email Mail2World tech support at support@mail2world.com
Consider creating/switching to another email address

I really do need you to consider that last one, if you suffer from this problem. Shentel can only report your trouble to Mail2World. Mail2World may or may not respond to your direct queries. They do respond to emails… sometimes. They have fixed this kind of problem before… but it took weeks or even months. Please know that Gmail/Outlook/AOL/Yahoo/ProtonMail/Apple email addresses typically do NOT have this problem! There are more reliable email products out there for you!

Rental Scams

August 31, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Rental scams are common on the internet. And they pertain to those looking for a place to rent, as well as landlords looking to rent out their property. Consider this info and be careful out there!

If You Are Looking to Rent as a Tenant

When you reach out to a landlord and inquire about a rental, pay attention to how they communicate and what they offer. There are a lot of warning signs for a rental scam:

The listing photos have a watermark from another website (because the pictures have been copied/stolen)
They ask to send you a code, for you to repeat back to them, “to prove your identity.” This is either the Google Voice Verification Scam, or an attempt to steal your Facebook or other social media account. Do not give any verification codes to anyone!
They ask you to make a deposit:
- urgently, immediately, before other offers come in!
- before you can tour the property
- before you’ve met the owner/landlord face-to-face
- through a wire transfer or gift card purchase
- by going off-platform. Example: you’ve responded to an AirBnB listing, and the owner asks you to pay him through Venmo for a lower price
The rental price is too-good-to-be-true
They don’t check your background or credit history

Please understand that rental listing scams are very easy to concoct. You may encounter them on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, AirBnb and other public sites. Cybercriminals can easily look over legitimate real estate listings, and copy them in very convincing ways. Sometimes, they’ll copy every single detail from a listing, and then only change the phone number and email address.

If your gut tells you something, listen to it and do your due diligence before handing over any money. And if you feel like you’re in over your head, find a real estate professional. A seasoned Realtor^® will protect you from all the scams out there, and many will help you find your next place to live without charging you for their service.

If You Are Renting Property as a Landlord

Landlords also have to watch out. That person reaching out to you about your apartment? They could be a scammer, too.

Don’t accept payment for more than the agreed-upon amount. If someone wants to send too much money, so that you can refund them the overage, that’s an overpayment scam.
Run the credit/employment checks yourself. If the tenant offers their own copies, that might seem kind of them, but those could be fakes. Trust but verify!
They ask to send you a code, for you to repeat back to them, “to prove your identity.” This is either the Google Voice Verification Scam, or an attempt to steal your Facebook or other social media account. Do not give any verification codes to anyone! (Yes, landlords have to deal with this, too!)

Saturn Concerns

August 27, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Folks are asking me to sound off on the Saturn app. If you have Saturn concerns, please consider this blog post:

The Saturn App

Saturn is an iOS app, intended for high school students. Saturn can help kids manage their schedules, and it also has social media functions, too. Teen users may enjoy using Saturn to announce their activities, coordinate with their peers, share their schedules and communicate quickly with their schoolmates. Students are allowed to input user photos and other personal info, as well as link to their other social media accounts (TikTok, Snapchat, even Venmo).

Saturn has been around since 2018, and was started by a couple of college kids. But they acquired a significant chunk of money from Jeff Bezos, Ashton Kutcher and other investors, and their company took off. The app seems to be popular and work very well, but shows no signs of arriving on the Android scene…

Saturn Concerns

In past and present years, parents and school officials have raised concerns over Saturn. Does this app expose our kids to online threats? How bad are the risks for letting my children onto this app? Should we limit or ban this app?

These questions are legitimate. Sharing personal info online always carries some amount of risk. But let’s not make snap decisions about it. If Saturn concerns you, I’d like you to learn more about the app, consider the current state of its security, and make your own personal judgment call on it.

One worrisome piece of news emerged this month, from a parent who claimed he’d installed the app and crossed some privacy boundaries with it. He said that by fudging some sign-up data, he was able to see other students’ schedules and pictures. This parent didn’t want to do anything harmful! He was instead demonstrating the lax security of the app, and encouraging more mindfulness about our teenagers’ online safety. Thank you, sir!

In response to this news, Saturn developers quickly changed the app, and announced their security improvements. It was no longer possible to do what the concerned parent had done. Presently, Saturn users have a stricter sign-up and verification process. If you don’t “get verified“, you can still use the app for calendaring, but verified users and their data will not be shown to any unverified users.

Testing the New Security

So I did similar to that concerned parent. I installed the app and tried to use it, even though I do not have a highschooler in my home. Here’s what I encountered:

Saturn asked for my birthdate. I lied. I put in some DOB that suggested I was 40-something years old. It accepted it and moved on.

The next requirement was my mobile number. I had to give it a way of texting me an access code. So I cooperated and then Saturn welcomed me in. But I would not have gotten any further without giving it a real textable number.

Then I immediately set about trying to see other people’s info. Could I see someone else’s calendar? Could I start chatting with other students? No, I met with these screens:

I tried to get verified as if I were a student. The next screen asked me to sign in with my school email. I didn’t have one of those, but I sure have plenty of Microsoft and Google emails, so I tried using some of those. Saturn quickly rebuked me:

At this point, I stopped trying to gain access. For me to penetrate these defenses, it was pretty clear I would have to go beyond the pale. I would have to compromise other systems in order to gain access to Saturn’s sensitive info. Stopping here, I could only see and use my own calendar space in the Saturn app.

Summary Judgment

Take all of this with a grain of salt. I cannot possibly advise every parent on how to best run their household and their technology. Please take what you want from all of this and use it any way you see fit.

I look at Saturn and I see some amount of risk. I look at all online social apps that way. Sharing personal info of any kind on the internet can be both useful and hazardous. Rather than admonish people to never do it, I have to be more practical and urge you to be mindful of where and when you do it.

Mindful = judgmental. When I judge Saturn, with just this small amount of testing and probing, I think it’s got some good security in place. Is it perfect? No, a determined bad guy could get in and cause harm. But that goes for any social-technology construct. Facebook. Snapchat. Discord. When I start comparing Saturn against all of the other apps that I see young people using, I judge Saturn to have above-average security. My opinion is that your teens are in far more danger using Facebook and Instagram. It is far easier to game the system and cause harm on the other platforms we use.

Whether you allow or prevent your teen from using Saturn is up to you. But after you make that choice, I encourage you to think about all of the other ways your son or daughter uses the internet. We can’t afford to be hyper-focused on one app with the larger issue of Internet Safety looming over our heads. There are many online resources to keep your child educated and safe on the internet. Perhaps the Saturn app is here to deliver a teachable moment amongst the many lessons in your child’s digital upbringing.

Traptops in 2023 v2.0

August 26, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 3 Comments

Just last month, I went on at length about traptops on this blog. I’m sorry to say that I have to return to this topic, as people are bringing to my attention some even sneakier traptops. Let’s pull open the drapes on these shenanigans, so fewer people get taken by this trickery. Here we go with Traptops in 2023 v2.0:

I Was Almost Fooled

This new type of traptop almost fooled me. I recommend you check out this listing over at Amazon. Here’s another comparable listing, also on Amazon. If I go digging, they’re on Wal*Mart, as well. I had to stare at these for a few minutes; I truly doubted my spidey-sense at first, because these products really look good. They feature:

a big name brand (HP)
shipped quickly through Amazon’s Prime program
sold as a New item, with Windows 11
tons of storage space and RAM
a reasonable price

But I think the tip-off to me was that these computers sport too much RAM. 8GB is enough, 16GB is a lot, but you don’t typically see 32GB of RAM in a $500 computer 32GB of RAM is only expected inside of professional-grade or top-tier gaming computers.

Next, I noticed the processors: Intel Pentium and Silver CPUs. The same bargain-basement, ultra-low-powered chips found in those sub-$200 traptops I’m always going on about. The combination of amazing RAM/storage with a low-rent processor caused my facial tic to act up. So I dug in further.

The Plot Sickens

Reading the finer print, other details stuck out to me:

These computers are sold by mystery companies (Oydisen, Snow Bell, etc.) and not HP or Dell.
They are “new” in the sense that no other consumers have used them before. But these computers have been opened, unboxed, dissected, and “upgraded” with components from other sources.

I had to sit with this and imagine the path of one of these computers, from its birth to arriving at my doorstep. Here’s my hot-take on how this happens:

HP manufactures too many computers, and they are left with some extra pallets of traptops from last year. They sell them off cheap through remainder programs or other ersatz methods, to companies like Oydisen. These fringe companies crack open the laptops, take out the 128GB SSDs and swap in 1TB SSDs, take out the 4GB of RAM and put in 32GB, slap it all back together and try to move them on Amazon, eBay and Wal*Mart, where the return policies will discourage anything from being sent back. The newish computers are then sold off at a big profit, and they also get to sell off the harvested parts in bulk, too.

If I had to guess, they likely bought these 2022 traptops for less than $200 a pop. If they buy the SSDs in bulk, they could be less than $40 apiece. And RAM also can be found cheaply, for under $50. All told, these outfits could be moving $250 computers for $500 or more.

Now, I don’t want you to get angry about them making money. This is America, and everyone marks up every piece of merchandise. What I want you to focus on are the problems and dangers with the computers they’re cranking out.

What Can Go Wrong

As I’ve detailed before, traptops are built to go wrong. They’re underpowered, deliberately hobbled, have insufficient cooling and are largely non-upgradeable. Adding an unbelievable amount of RAM and massive storage does not change this.

In fact, it increases the risk of problems. More RAM creates more heat. The laptop was designed with its original hardware in mind, and it may not be able to exhaust the heat created by the upgrades heaped upon it.

Please consider also: What happens if you have any hardware problems with this computer? Are you going to call HP Support? Let me stop you right there: HP will not help you with this “new” computer. The warranty was voided by the company that cracked the seal and removed the HP parts. If you have any warranty, it’s now with Oysiden or whoever sent you the computer.

And if you are upset or disappointed after buying such a computer, the deck is stacked against you for returning it. Even if you are well within the return-window, Amazon or Wal*mart may resist accepting the computer back. Because: Can you truly prove there’s anything wrong with it? They’ll help you with defective merch, but not with anything they think is buyer’s remorse.

And finally, good luck tracking down these seller, for support or complaints or anything. I went looking for Oydisen and never found a website or phone number. I can find their warehouse in Delaware, and their awful BBB profile, but no sensible way of calling them. Another seller, Snow Bell, tracks back to a lovely $1M residential home in Fairfax, VA, but I have a feeling they don’t welcome customers or calls there.

Stay Safe Out There

Buying from big box stores is generally safer than buying from Amazon, Wal*Mart and eBay. When you buy from a big name store, the computer is coming from them. But Amazon and Wal*Mart consider themselves “marketplaces”, where anyone can sell anything. And they don’t take much responsibility over what their marketplace sellers’ behavior.
If you do buy from Amazon, take special note of the Sold By info in the product details. “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com” is safer than “Sold by Hot Mess Express Tech Deals”.
I recommend you choose new computers over refurbished/renewed/open box systems. And read the fine-print to make sure they are truly new-in-box, unmolested, all quality seals intact.
Know where your computer warranty lay. If you buy from Costco, that’s where you go with warranty questions and tech help. Best Buy, Staples, MicroCenter will steer your warranty concerns to the original manufacturer’s number. If you find out that the warranty is through some unknown third-party, that should raise a red flag.
Please feel free to email or call me about any computer purchase you are unsure of. I will quickly offer an opinion about any PC you send me details about.

Quickbooks Desktop Software – PDF Problem

August 25, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Right now, I am seeing an uptick with a PDF problem inside of Quickbooks Desktop software. When Quickbooks users first open their software, they get this message:

Quickbooks Desktop Software - PDF Problem

And thereafter, the software will not allow you to create any PDFs, of your invoices, estimates and reports.

Quickbooks has a handy-dandy software tool for you to download and try, but lately, that lovely app doesn’t fix this issue. They also have some more advanced recommendations, but these often do not help, either. And even uninstalling and reinstalling Quickbooks doesn’t do the trick!

If you’re suddenly having this PDF problem: This was caused by a recent Microsoft update. Quickbooks requires a particular Windows component to be turned on, and it’s been turned off. Try these steps to re-enable it:

Press Win + R on your keyboard
Type appwiz.cpl and press Enter
To the upper-left, click on Turn Windows Features On or Off
Scroll down the list to find Microsoft XPS Document Writer and put a check in the box next to it.
Click OK and wait for Windows to complete the changes.
Click Close.
Restart your computer.

Note: if the box next to Microsoft XPS Document Writer is already checked, uncheck it and click OK. Then return to that window and check it again.

Mobile Broadband

August 18, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 2 Comments

When shopping for internet service, you may have plenty of options: Cable, Fiber, Fixed Wireless, Satellite, DSL. But one oft-overlooked option needs to be included: Mobile Broadband. This home internet service is powered over the airwaves and through the same towers as your cellular phones. Consider these options from the big cellular companies:

T-Mobile Home Internet

AT&T Internet Air

Verizon Home Internet

If you have terrestrial options for internet service, you may want to stick with them. But the new residential mobile broadband service can be a moneysaver/lifesaver for people in rural, underserved areas. If you are suffering under super-slow DSL, or flaky satellite internet service, or high-priced Starlink, the above options are worth considering!

But mobile broadband is not available everywhere. The first step for anyone considering this type of internet is to talk with the provider. Visit a T-MO, ATT or VZ store and have them check your address. They’ll let you know if your residence is serviceable.

When someone signs up for mobile broadband service, the provider sends a Wi-Fi modem, as shown above. The user plugs it in, uses an app to setup the household Wi-Fi, and then starts connecting the household computers and devices. It’s usually pretty streamlined and easy. And their Wi-Fi modem serves as a regular router, allowing you to connect multiple computers, streaming devices, printers, etc..

These home internet options are not as blazing fast as cable or fiber, but they should be significantly better than DSL. If you investigate this type of internet, make sure to ask the provider what type of speeds they think you’ll get in your area. They can vary wildly from one region to the next.

The Facebook Edited-Post Scam

August 14, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Anyone who posts to Facebook can edit what they’ve posted. You simply go to the post and click the 3-dots button in the corner, and then select Edit Post. It’s a pretty handy tool, but it’s also being abused in what we can call The Facebook Edited-Post Scam.

Innocent Beginning

The scams starts with some harmless-looking posts, usually appearing in Facebook groups. Here are some examples:

These posts don’t seem to ask for much, so they aren’t likely to trigger your spidey-sense for scams. Sometimes they ask that you care & share, others just encourage you to comment with “Got It!” And many people do what is asked, and then move on.

The Switcheroo

But some time later, the scam develops. After the post has been spread through multiple Shares, and/or after many people have commented “Got it” underneath, the scammer makes a big change. Using the Edit Post function, the bad guy deletes the photo of the hurt dog or missing kid, and inserts something altogether different. They also delete the original text and enter in new verbiage:

The benefit (to the scammers) here is that the post retains all of its comments and Shares. That lost puppy post has metamorphosed into a money-lure scam, that has been shared to many other groups and still has many positive comments underneath it. It can really look convincing!

But please know that all of these things are scams. If you interact with the posting account, they will strive to steal money from you. Please don’t play their game. Report them and their posts to Facebook and the group admin or moderator.

How to Defend Against These Scams

One good thing is that you can check for the switcheroo-edit. Remember the 3-dots button in the corner of each post? Click that and select Edit History. That reveals any and all changes that have been made to the post. It becomes very obvious, if you know to use this tool.

That 3-dots button also holds your reporting functions. You can first report the post to Facebook, but don’t expect much of a response. Their bots usually get back to me to state that they saw nothing wrong with the post. What’s most important is that you report the post to the people in charge of the Facebook Group. Those mods and admins are usually good people who care about the group, and will yank the post once they get your report.

If you are in a group where the moderators do NOT fulfill their duties, leave the group. You will know when this is the case, because the group will appear to be overrun with scammy posts! Sure, you can report the group to Facebook, but they will not respond. Your best bet is to save yourself and not be a part of that chaos.

If you’ve accidentally Liked, Shared or Commented on a Facebook Edited-Post Scam, try to undo that action. You can always unLike a post and delete a comment or Share. Having trouble finding what you’ve been doing on Facebook? Use the Activity Log to locate your Likes, Comments and more. And if you see that a friend has interacted with a scammy post, reach out to them to let them know. Encourage them to undo their actions, so that they’re not contributing to the spread or success of the scam.

Last thing: When someone tells you to what to share or type on Facebook, be suspicious. Share and comment what you want to, not when a stranger pushes you to.

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