Category: Social Media (Page 4 of 5)

Facebook Text Delights

May 3, 2022 / Jesse Mueller / 14 Comments

When using Facebook, you may notice that certain phrases and words automagically take on color. And when you click/tap those special-looking words, a fun animation occurs, with a sound effect. These are Facebook Text Delights.

And it seems that Facebook users either love them or hate them. Sure, they can be a lot of fun in casual posts or comments. Facebook Text Delights are innocent and mostly harmless. But here are some common criticisms:

They are unreliable. Some people report that they do not work in the Faebook mobile app. Others type in a text delight phrase, and see no change or effect, until after the post is finalized. And I’ve seen a few instances where someone creates a Facebook Text Delight, only for it to revert to plain boring text after the Post button is clicked.
They cannot be disabled. It used to be that you could type a phrase, see that it colored in and became a delight, and then press the Backspace key one time to eliminate the delight-effect. That tip no longer works. If you have entered anything that Facebook considers to be a Text Delight phrase, it will show its special effect, unless you deliberately misspell it!
There’s no master list of Facebook Text Delights for us to consult. Many blogs and news sites will help you read lists of what will “add delight” to a Facebook post, but none are definitive, and Facebook adds and eliminates delight-phrases without informing anyone. For example, “best wishes” used to be a Facebook Text Delight, but it no longer triggers any fancy effects for me.

Facebook Support hasn’t given me any feedback on the future of their Text Delights, so I don’t have any optimistic details for you yet. But some advice:

Review everything that you post or comment to Facebook. If you intended to post a Text Delight, you might want to notice if it actually appeared or not. If you don’t want a text delight, please be aware that things like “You’re the Best” and XOXO may color in and show cartoonish effects, after you post it.
If you want to suppress a Text Delight, you’ll have to get creative. If you don’t “Wonderful time” to turn blue and give you a thumbs-up, change it to “lovely time”. Try to avoid the balloons of “Congratulations” by misspelling it as “congradulations”. Instead of entering “You Got This”, try “You. Got. This.”

Nextdoor’s Questionable Marketing Tactics

April 12, 2022 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Nextdoor is a social networking website with a focus on neighborhood connections and local resources. If your neighborhood isn’t already connecting through a Facebook group, Nextdoor might be a useful option. But your first encounter with this company may seem scammy. Nextdoor’s questionable marketing tactics often weird people out!

Postcards in the Mail?

To attract new users, Nextdoor occasionally mails postcards or letters to people. On paper, through the USPS. These letters invite you to join up for free and try out Nextdoor.

Most people wouldn’t think much of a marketing letter in the mail. But here’s the sus part: These letters often drop names of people in your neighborhood. They mention your neighborhood by name, as well. They’re a little uncanny, and some folks read these letters and smell a scam. It’s not a scam but it sure looks sketchy…

We can’t stop Nextdoor from this marketing behavior. But we should be aware that Nextdoor may use your name or other PII on their marketing letters to others! Unless, you deliberately opt out, and here’s how to do that:

On a computer

Visit the Nextdoor website and sign in.
Click the account bubble to the upper-right, and then click Settings.
On the left, click Privacy.
Scroll down to the Invitation letters section, and turn off the toggle next to “Allow Nextdoor to mail letters on your behalf”.

In the Nextdoor app

Open the Nextdoor app and sign in.
To the upper-left, tap your account picture/circle.
At the bottom, tap Settings.
Tap Privacy Settings.
Scroll down to the Invitation letters section, and turn off the toggle next to “Allow Nextdoor to mail letters on your behalf”.

And Another Thing…

While you are rummaging through these settings, you may also want to regard an extra item, under “Contacts”. There is something named “Sync Address Book Contacts” in here that you may want to turn off (slider to the left). If this setting is turned on, then Nextdoor may use the info in your address book to spam your friends, encouraging them to join Nextdoor!

Nextdoor's Questionable Marketing Tactics — An example email, from allowing an Address Book Sync with Nextdoor

Facebook Phishing on Facebook

March 10, 2022 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Watch out for this recent scheme on Facebook:

If you encounter this anywhere on Facebook, please know that it is not legitimate, and Facebook/Meta did NOT send this to you. Do not click the link. Do not respond to the message.

You can and should click the 3-dots button to the upper-right, to report the message/account to Facebook as a fake or impostor. That will help Facebook detect and remove the ruse.

True Facebook messages about your reports & violations would appear in the Support Inbox for your Facebook account. That can be a bit tricky to find, but try this link if you want to visit yours. You can trust what you read on that website.

How Bad This Scam Can Get

If someone is tricked into clicking the link, some browsers will protect the user and warn about the dangerous site ahead:

But other, less-secure browsers might load that link straight away, and then this alert appears:

fake Facebook login screen, made by cyber criminals

This is still all fake! The user’s FB account is perfectly fine, and the above text is 100% fiction. But when a person clicks the blue button there, the next page prompts them to type in their Facebook credentials. After that, the scammers quickly capture and use that info to log into that Facebook account.

Once inside the victim’s account, they will:

Change the FB password, locking the true owner out.
Change the account recovery methods, so that the true owner cannot reset his/her password.
Start using the account to scam everyone on the Friends List of the account.
Start using the account for other criminal enterprises on Facebook and beyond.

If The Worst Has Happened To You

If you have been fooled by this phishing effort, contact Facebook for help with your account ASAP. You may certainly try to reset your password first, but if that fails, Facebook will have to put you through some considerable verification steps and other processes to fix the situation.

You’ll need this Facebook article to begin the recovery process. Click on “I think my Facebook account was hacked…” and then click the get Started button. Answer the next questions as best you can and hopefully Facebook will repair your account… soon.

You might also contact your friends and family, via email or phone, to let them know about your stolen account. Tell them something like, “Don’t trust anything coming from my FB account, until I explicitly tell you I’ve recovered it!”

For more reading on this, check out the Malwarebytes Blog.

Lack of Policing on Facebook

January 10, 2022 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Yesterday, I reported a scam from a Facebook group. And an autoreply quickly arrived, stating that their “technology” had reviewed my request and found nothing to act on. I then chose the option to Request a Second Review, because they got it wrong. That got me this disappointing response:

This suggests that they put more manpower towards moderating issues involving loss of life and limb. And they put less or no effort into preventing fraud and deception. On Facebook, you will get support if your life is threatened, but not if someone is only trying to lie, cheat and steal from you.

I especially take issue with their bulleted list at the end. This just doesn’t set well with me. If I see someone on a street corner trying to scam my neighbors, would I walk away and ignore the scammer? Go in my house and forget the crime I just saw? How does that help keep things safe for everyone?

I apologize for taking a sharp tone over this. But this shows why Facebook (and much of the rest of the internet) is so hazardous. I liken it to the Wild West. We do not have as much protection or support on the web as we do when we are walking down Main Street in Small-Town America.

When you see something wrong on Facebook, you should still report it. But you may want to go further, because Facebook does not always have your back. When the questionable post is in a Facebook Group, also report it to the admin(s) of the group. The admin is usually a local person who cares more than Facebook, and will respond in a more nuanced manner.

You could also comment on the offending material, to give public notice to others. But even the most non-confrontational comment can trigger a backlash from a hostile criminal. Always go to an admin if you need discretion in dealing with something.

Duct Cleaning Scams

December 19, 2021 / Jesse Mueller / 8 Comments

Duct Cleaning Scams are very common on Facebook, and are probably the most common type of service scam you’ll find there. They are usually posted inside of Group Pages, where they are more visible and Facebook does less monitoring.

Warning Signs of a Duct Cleaning Scam

You should suspect a scam when you see:

A poster doesn’t state a business name, website address or phone number.
The FB account of the poster has newly joined the group and shows little to no activity on their profile. The poster has blurry profile pictures and/or no friend connections local to you.
A poster does offer a business name and website, but insists you text/call a number that is different than shown on their site.
A vague discount is promised, with no explicit pricing, or a flat fee is offered for cleaning unlimited ducts and vents.
The provided phone number turns up no Google results or shows an area code from a faraway region.
They won’t give their licensing or NADCA info on demand.
The poster has Liked their own post, or has a Locked Facebook Profile.
They misspell “duct”, with an apostrophe or substitution (to dodge word filters).

duct cleaning scams on facebook — Scam Duct Cleaning Posts from Facebook

A legitimate company is going to state their contact info clearly and readily. Real businesses want to make it easy for you to contact them through various means (phone, email, website), so it should be a red flag to you if you’re having trouble getting that info. And real duct cleaning outfits will not dodge questions about their business or NADCA licensing.

More Scam Duct Cleaning Posts from Facebook

Scam Details

I haven’t experienced the end-game of duct cleaning scams myself. But I have messaged them and tried to figure out their angle. Sometimes they lie and claim they work for companies that know nothing about them. Other times, they’re just evasive and ignore questions about their identity. They push to schedule an appointment for service with me, only to cancel and block me as soon as I reveal that the service address is for my local police station. Fancy that.

Still, we can get some ideas of what the scammers’ goals are. Listen to this professional detail how these scams affect his legitimate company. And consider what happens in these tawdry exposes.

Once you absorb what’s presented in those videos, take a step back, and appreciate the fishiness. My take is that Facebook is the communication tool of choice for a crime referral network. Facebook users from Pakistan (hiding behind Western-sounding names, using throwaway sock puppet accounts) are helping shady contractors connect to potential victims all over the USA! These unlicensed mystery workers will come to your home with duct cleaning equipment, but they may not perform honest service. Chances are they will lie, cheat and steal from you, and then disappear without a trace.

Dos and Don’ts

If you see a duct cleaning scam, don’t waste your time contacting the poster. Don’t give them any personal info, because they could share it with other scammers. And don’t let questionable people into your home! The most you can do is report the post to the admins of the FB Group as a scam. And if you’re an admin of such a FB group, you’ll want to remove the post ASAP to protect your group members. Track down and block the scammer’s account from your group, too!

You can try to report things to Facebook, as well. But they aren’t too responsive. Since the actual crime is occurring off-platform, Facebook moderators don’t see anything actionable. I’ve reported countless duct cleaning scams, to no avail. It’s pretty much up to us to keep alert and look out for each other.

Dollar General Scam on Facebook

October 9, 2021 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

I’ve written before about a Lowes scam on Facebook, and the latest Dollar General scam is taken from the same playbook. If you see this post, claiming to offer free $30 vouchers from DG, know that it is a scam. Please don’t trust it or share it. If possible, report it to Facebook.

How do to tell that it’s a scam? There are some details to look out for:

First, visit the real Dollar General Facebook Page. On that page, you’ll see a blue badge stating this is a verified, authentic business page. Facebook has checked the identity of this page to make sure it’s not an impostor. You won’t see that badge when you go to the “Dollar General Fans” page.

Also consider: the true Dollar General Facebook Page has 3.4M Likes. The fake-Dollar General Facebook Page has 4,000.

The real Dollar General FB page was created in 2009, if you look under the Page Transparency section. The scammer’s page was created yesterday.

Here’s what’s so bad about this type of scam:

When you click Like on something, Facebook automatically promotes it to your Friends. Your connections on Facebook will probably see “John Doe Liked the Dollar General Voucher Giveaway” and they may visit the scam and click Like. And then their Friends will see what they Liked, leading them to visit the scam… It’s a bit like a toxic chain letter.

Next, here are some directions the scam may go:

1) A person running the promotion contacts you over FB Messenger to say that you’ve won! But first they need your name, address, DOB, and driver’s license info, credit card #. They claim you cannot claim your prize unless you comply, and this is all done to verify who you are.

2) Someone messages you to say that you’ve won and the prize is on its way, After they get your mailing address, they send you a check. For the wrong amount! They’ve sent a check for $1035, and they ask you to send them $1000 back. If you comply, you’ll soon be out $1000 thanks to a kind of fake check scam.

3) The Page manager contacts you, asking for your email, so that he can send you an official Winner document. You have to fill it out to claim your prize. But when you receive the attachment, it asks to install something on your computer.

The 1st example can lead to identity theft. The 2nd is a quick way to take untraceable money from you (and they’ll probably contact lots of people with this line, not just one lucky winner). And the 3rd is a common method of making people install malware on their computers.

There is no $30 Voucher Giveaway, no one will win anything from this! If you’ve interacted with this or any other Facebook scam Page, please: Unlike the Page or posts, delete any Shares you’ve made and report the Page to Facebook. Facebook might move faster to address the scam if it receives a higher volume of reports about it.

Last year, this scam was a chance at a free RV from a big mid-west company. Next month, it could be free Starbucks coffee for a year or government loan forgiveness. This sort of scam will keep happening on Facebook, a different bait each time. But the tactics and telltales will be the same. Stay dubious, my friends!

TMI on Facebook

May 25, 2021 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Too Much Info

Recently I commented on YouTube that we should be very careful about what we share on social media. Specifically, I mentioned that we should avoid posting personal or sensitive facts about ourselves. Consider this ubiquitous example:

Sharing your employment info with the entire internet

I see this post repeated all over Facebook, sometimes with over 500,000 comments. My jaw drops to see so many people publicly reveal their answer to a security question they may have used on an important account.

But beyond advising you to Don’t Comment on These Posts, I want to conjecture a little with you, and suggest how deep the danger can go.

A Fairly Bad Tale

Let’s imagine a guy named Joseph Target. He’s an average guy who is amused by all the fun posts on Facebook. He’s clicked Like on hundreds of Pages that show him jokes and fun stuff. And he comments on everything he can relate to. “I worked at Subway, too! In Springfield, where I grew up. My brother still lives there.” Joe thinks it’s all harmless fun. And you know what? It is, at the time, for most of the people on Facebook.

Until one day, his Facebook account is stolen from him. He thinks it’s a high-level hackjob, but it was a common Messenger scam, that tricked him into giving up his password to the bad guys. He learns about the problem when people start calling him about weird FB Messages coming from his account. He hurries to a computer, goes through the standard account recovery process and then starts sending apologies to his FB friends. All told, it may have only been a few hours that his account was in someone else’s hands. But with a new password in hand, Joe feels like things are resolved, and he settles back into some Farmville games and commenting on posts about favorite hamburger toppings.

But during those few hours? The intruders weren’t just spamming his Facebook friends. They downloaded all of his Facebook info, saved it to their hard drive for future perusal. That includes his every post, every Like, every comment on everyone else’s posts, including all of those fun posts about his first job and mother’s name. Since they had Joe’s password, the process was quick (about an hour) and easy to do.

So as Joe returned to his casual Facebooking, the thieves casually riffled through all of Joe’s posts and other info from Facebook. And the bad guy was able to assemble quite the dossier on Joe, starting with his address and phone and email, and moving on to work history, relatives’ names, where he banks, his first pet’s name, and all kinds of other choice things he’s commented on over the years. All from one download from Facebook.

Are these Facebook phishers going to commit identity theft? Probably not, but they will sell the Target’s info to seasoned criminals, who do know how to steal someone’s identity. They’ll go on to use Joe’s record to open lines of credit, start utilities accounts, and maybe even obtain legal identification, all in his name.

Yes, this is an extreme story. This may not occur with every compromised FB account, but please understood how possible it all is. It does happen.

Safeguards

What can you do about it? For starters, stop posting personal info to Facebook (and other social media). Don’t post anything on Public posts, and review your own account data. Delete what sensitive info you can from their site, like your birthday, hometown, High School. While that info can help long-lost friends find you, it’s also useful to strangers and bad guys.

If you have some spare time, use the Download function to get a copy of your Facebook info and review it yourself. You may be surprised or terrified at what you find in there; it’s almost like reading a diary you’ve been secretly keeping on yourself! But it may help you find other info on your account that you’ll want to change or remove.

Consider turning on 2-factor authentication for your Facebook account. I know, 2FA can be an added inconvenience when logging into your account, but it is an effective safeguard against some bad actor swiping your password. With 2FA in place, someone would have to swipe your password and your phone in order to gain access to your account. That’s highly unlikely to happen!

Ultimately, though, the only certain method to protect your info on Facebook is to close your account. Identity thieves can’t see or copy info from your account, once it’s been deactivated. I don’t expect many of you will delete your Facebook, but just in case, this shows the steps for that.

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