‘Prayers for Likes’ Facebook Scam

Pictures of sick babies circulate through social media sites, especially through Facebook.

These images are of sick children, less fortunate families, and persons with deformities.



Specifically, a sick baby with hospital equipment in the background which claims that liking the image equates to a prayer for the child while sharing equates to one hundred prayers.

The disgraceful scam is designed to accumulate likes for a Facebook Page and promote the Page for more shares.

The image of the baby was stolen from a personal Facebook profile and is being circulated without the baby’s parents permission.

This is how most Facebook scams work.  Pictures are distributed and not authorized to be shared, then stolen from its rightful owners.

Tragically, the baby in the picture passed away only two weeks after she was born.

The message continued to circulate, causing great distress to the baby’s family.

If you see messages like this on Facebook, please do not like or share it.

Analysis

Like farming and sharing messages will not help the baby or the baby’s family in any way.  The message is just a tic in the long branch of sick baby hoaxes that falsely claim that you can help a baby by liking or sharing the message.




Some messages claim that money will be donated in exchange for liking or sharing.  Others declare that liking and sharing equates to prayers for the child.

The people who create these messages are driven by greed and selfishness.

This precious baby passed away April 2014, just weeks after she was born.

Whether or not you believe that prayers will help, the real intention of this scam is not pure.

Facebook has removed some of these messages and continues to take them down in a timely manner.

Although, there have been numerous reports, there are still some messages that continue to circulate with no action taken.

If you see scams  like this, please report them to Facebook as soon as possible.

Report a scam:

https://www.facebook.com/help/344403945636114/

http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/How-to-report-a-Facebook-scam.html/

What Facebook scams have you come across lately?  Please share your experience and help us take control over these cruel messages.

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet, “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+.

References:

‘Prayers for Likes’ Facebook Sick Baby Scam – Hoax-Slayer
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/prayers-for-likes-facebook-scam.shtml

Facebook helps scammers with the “like” shares

Images are appearing on Facebook and are helping out scammers with the “like” button shares.  It’s hard to not ‘like’ the image of the little girl that beat cancer or the Facebook super dad that is juggling his two daughters getting them ready for school.

These images are put out there to make these scammers cash.  Sometimes people in the photos don’t even realize their picture is circulating.

This image is from 2007 that has been shared thousands of times on Facebook. The girl’s family never gave permission for this photo to be circulated.

The photo above hit Facebook last year and popped up all over the world with messages of support.  The photo suggested to “Like” the photo if you care about the little girl.  Or “Share” to tell her she’s beautiful.

Facebook scammers use this farming technique to get people to feel guilty if they do not like or share the photo.  Sometimes the post says “ignore” if you don’t care, or “ignore” if you want her to die.

These tactics used for getting people emotionally involved, work.

Thousands of Facebook posts just like this are circulated everyday.

The Facebook Scamming Community

Amanda Rieth of Northampton, Pennsylvania said, “I was first shocked, and then infuriated,” when she found out about her daughters Facebook page post.

Her daughter was diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma in 2007.  Reith’s daughter has been featured in local news segments for her fundraising efforts to be featured in segments for her fundraising efforts to fight cancer through Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Amanda Rieth has always been a part of the decision to help publicize her daughters fight with cancer.  Never did she think this would happen.

Scammers do not care about at what cost these posts do to the people and families that fall victim to these farming scams.

When the page creators obtain thousands of likes and shares, they’ll strip the page and promote something else that they can get commission for selling.

Many sell the page through black-market websites to someone who will do the same.

This is a way to trick Facebook’s algorithm, it’s designed to give more value to public pages.  You will see scams and spam pages pop up overnight.

“The more likes and shares and comments and that sort of thing you have, the more likely it is to be seen by other people,” Senft said. “If they’re looking to sell the page in a black-hat forum somewhere, that’s what the value of the page is.”

 

The Facebook Scam Gets Worse

The “new” page is sometimes used to spread malware.  Malware is the software that is put onto a computer after it’s attacked for phishing.  This phishing tactic accesses credit card numbers, passwords, and other personal information through links to phony contests or charities.

This hurts many people and future posts, not to mention the reputation of Facebook.

There are Facebook farming posts the pertain to more than just sentimental people.

A recent page with a post that said, “Who loves French fries? Like & share if you do.”
Farming scams like this encourage foodies to get involved in the front.

If you come across these pages on your Facebook, pay no attention.  You may be helping the black-market and possibly falling for a phishing scam.

What “like-farming” scam have you come across?  Please share your experience with us below!

Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet or “Like” us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news and PC security alerts.

References:
On Facebook, clicking ‘like’ can help scammers – CNN Tech
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/21/tech/social-media/facebook-like-farming/index.html?hpt=te_t1

[Scam Alert] ‘Free Walmart Gift Cards’

WALMART GIFT CARD****WARNING*****SCAM ALERT***** WARNING**** SCAM ALERT*****

Warning!  This Facebook scam promises free gift cards in exchange for a couple minutes of your time to complete a short survey.

This scam is spread by deceitful Facebook applications.  The accounts infected should manually delete any posts and remove the damaging application.

The applications are designed to obtain account information from the user, this spreads spam and infects the account along with friends of the account.

Some examples are:

• Profile Viewer Apps
• Apps that redirect to phishing links and forms
• Apps that lead to malicious downloads
• Apps that lead to survey scams

Here are the best way to guard your account from third-party Facebook applications entirely.

1. Don’t go crazy on installing applications.  Stick with known developers and software companies.  Be sure to read about the application before committing to it.
2. Double check your permissions granted on Facebook.  You can access permissions through privacy settings or account settings.  Click the padlock or gears icon, and navigate to the page.

Here you can click the Edit link to review permissions of any apps you have installed or click the ‘x’ to remove them.






Here you can see the Facebook data application that you have access to. There is a ‘Remove app’ link on the screen, you can click the link to easily remove it from your account.

Be suspicious if you see applications that request the following:

• Complete access to your Facebook account – An app requesting too many permissions is a big warning sign.
• Access to Facebook Chat – You don’t want the app spamming malicious links via chat messages to your friends.
• The right to manage your Pages or Events – it is a common tactic for scammers is to create bogus pages and events to spread their messages viral across Facebook.

To stay up-to-date on scams you can visit these sites:
WWW.SNOPES.COM
WWW.FACECROOKS.COM
WWW.HOAX-SLAYER.COM
WWW.URBANLEGENDS.COM

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+