Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed an increasing number of random posts offering me the opportunity to ‘View today’s photo of the day!’ in my Facebook news feed.
I knew that these were spam posts, but I wasn’t sure how they were appearing on my news feed.
Naturally, my first instinct was to check what apps were installed on my personal profile – after all, I play my fair share of games on Facebook – however, none of my apps matched the name of the one that appeared to be making these posts.
So, what’s the deal with these mystery spam posts then?
Well, the problem is that one of your Facebook pals has installed an app that has gone rogue.
If you happen to click the option to view the photo, you will be taken to a page offering the option to install that very same app that’s responsible for the spam posts, which in this case is an app named ‘Get Revealed’:
The goal of the app is to give you random yes/no questions to answer about your friends and prompt you to post a vague message on their Wall saying you answered a question about them. However, your friend can’t view your answer unless they install the app and enter a never-ending cycle of having to answer questions about THEIR friends and post messages to THEIR Walls until they earn (or purchase) enough credits to ‘unlock’ whatever answers you (and other) friends have submitted about them.
As you can see, there’s a nice warning on the very first page that ‘This app may post on your behalf, including questions you answered and more.’ So, the app has every intention of annoying your friends one way or another, whether it is with the vague posts that you willingly publish after answering a question or the ‘view the photo of the day’ posts it spits out whenever it feels the need to do so.
Other apps that partake in the annoying ‘View photo/picture of the day!’ posts are:
- All Truths About You
- Truth Game
- Get Revealed (featured)
How do I get rid of the ‘View today’s photo of the day!’ posts?
If you are seeing these spam posts, you have a few ways to go about getting rid of them:
- Notify your friend that they have a spam-spewing app attached to their Facebook profile and kindly ask that they remove it by going to their Facebook Account Settings, clicking Apps in the left navigation and clicking the ‘x’ next to whatever app is causing it (the post will say ‘via [APP NAME]’, so you can tell them the name of the app that needs to be removed).
- Report the App for spamming by clicking the app’s name and then clicking the ‘Report App’ link.
- Hide all stories posted by the app (regardless of who has it installed) by clicking the arrow next to the spam post and selecting ‘Hide all from [APP NAME]’.
- You can also mark each individual post made by the app as spam by clicking the arrow next to the post and selecting ‘Report story or spam’.
If you notice any other apps posting these spam messages, feel free to name them in the comments.
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+.
Don’t fall for the scam that’s currently circulating on Facebook claiming that you need to “verify your account” or risk having it terminated.
