Sophos Cloud Optix
Have your Facebook friends invited you to switch your boring blue Facebook profile to an attractive shade of red, black or shocking pink?
Judging by the number of messages the Naked Security team has received from Facebook users struck by the scam in the last few days, many social networking users must have seen similar messages to the following:
Switch to Pink Facebook (Limited Time!)
[LINK]
Say goodbye to the boring blue profile and say hello to the pink profile!!
Switch to Red Facebook (Limited Time!)
[LINK]
Say goodbye to the boring blue profile and say hello to the red profile!!
So what happens if you click on one of these links? Well, typically, are you are told that you must take multiple steps to receive your differently hue of Facebook.
Firstly, you are told to share the link with your online friends. This should be the first indication that something is amiss – after all, what legitimate feature or organisation would require you to share news of it *before* you have actually experienced what – if anything – it can do for you?
Secondly, you are asked to leave a comment – extolling the wonderfulness of your new pink or red Facebook. Remember – at this point your Facebook is still decidedly blue. Any comment you leave will, of course, act as an endorsement and could be seen by your online friends and encourage them to also participate.
Predictably, the point of all of this sharing is to drive more traffic to the scammers’ link where an online survey will pop-up. The more people who take the survey, the more commission that the scammers will earn.
That’s not to say, of course, that it’s impossible to turn your Facebook pink, red or black if you really want to. For instance, there are number of GreaseMonkey scripts which will work alongside the Firefox web browser to customise the look of Facebook – just as the look of eBay or GMail can be similarly changed on the fly if you choose.
Clearly there’s a demand for such customisation – even if it serves no practical purpose. But just make sure that your hunger for a pink-themed Facebook doesn’t lead you into a scheme designed purely to earn money for scammers.
If you’re one of the many people who fell for this or similar scams, please check your Facebook page to ensure that you are not spreading any messages to your online friends and ensure that you have revoked any Facebook applications, events and “like”d pages that you are uncomfortable with.
If you use Facebook and want to get an early warning about the latest attacks, you should join the Sophos Facebook page where we have a thriving community of over 150,000 people.
pfft any of those get my good old and well trusted "SPAM" comment and I pay them not attention at all they are all just stupid I want to see facebook sort out those spammers with a little ip ban on them so they wont get back in and spam again but that would take out a lot of the 800 million members and I think The Zuck wouldnt allow anything like that to take place but I would want them to have better security against this stuff from happening again
You have no clue how an IP ban would work do you?
For most internet users, every time you restart the router, or once weekly when your DHCP "lease" is up you get a new ip address so that wouldn't do anything at all.
Try some punctuation. My brain has never had to work so hard before. 🙂
if you comment "spam" arent you giving them attention?
I really think facebook should learn from these scams. Facebook keeps adding feature after feature that no one wants yet it is obvious that there are simple things like offering color customization that people do want. Actually offering these features would also cut done on things like this.
But then FB would also lose a stack of readies from the lost advertising…
With ppl like me, the lose anyway; AdBlock Plus and Feed Filter are wonderful add-ons for firefox.
I will believe when they say it turns to green 😀
Facebook won't add a feature they can't make money from. They've only increased security when their *partners* complained, or if they've had a lot of complaints from their sheep, uh, er, users. When they can figure out how to sell customization to a third-party advertiser, then it'll happen. The rumored IPO may change this, but I won't hold my breath.
GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE………… ..If you are not sure then Google it ….it will either throw you to info from Sophos or the many other sites dedicated to try and get rid of these spammers on Facebook ……it's just a shame we have to rely on other dedicated sites to check spammers and Facebook can't do it for themselves
This is something unbelievable regarding with facebook and it should definitely take some steps to get out of all these things
Anyways to be on safer side its recommended to get rid of these scams.
So I fell for this about 2-3 weeks ago, but have not noticed any unusual activity. Is there a way to remove it?
So I fell for this about 2-3 weeks ago, but have not noticed any unusual activity. Is there a way to remove it?
I am one of the suckers who fell for it… when i realized it’s a scam, it was too late.
All of a suden facebook threw me out saying there was a security issue and I had to reset my password. I probably should have gone to a fresh page before login in…
In the meantime, 4-5 posts were put on some good friends tempting them to follow suit and I was blocked from posting, chatting or sending messages, so I couldn’t warn my friends of the scam. But I could go to their individual pages (my wall said which friends I supposedly posted to) and delete the scam-post.
Now my Facebook has limited access, I still can’t post, chat or send messages from the browser where it happened (google chrome), but I can use Facebook unobstructed from Firefox, or from a different laptop.
I cannot find any litterature on FB’s help pages, nor by googling, on how to restore full functionality of my FB account on Google Chrome.
Any suggestions?
uninstall crome n reinstall it
then u can
.. how to switch pink facebook to blue ?
thx
thank u
Thank you !
I DID ONE OF THOSE THINGS AND scanned my computer found nothing wrong wwith it and i got a black and pink fb page now so not all of them are scams
thanks
the scams doesn't use your facebook acount there is nothing wrong in it.
the thing is on GoogleChrome so either delete any suspisous add on on your google chrome browser or use an other browser
see on the extensions on google chrome and delete it
So if you clicked…how do I remove it because my anti virus is going crazy every time I am on FB and the page shares itself…constantly..help
It is added as an extension to your browser just go into browser settings and delete it
thanks a lot –>Elouarith Yasser ·..it was on google chrome ..and i finaly got rid of it !!
I really think facebook should learn from these scams. Facebook keeps adding feature after feature that no one wants yet it is obvious that there are simple things like offering color customization that people do want. Actually offering these features would also cut done on things like this.
i clicked it.D; how do i get rid of it? it keeps posting photos and tagging people.. i have looked to uninstall and things but i can't find it! please help!:( it was the red one..
Elouarith Yasser · 1 week ago
see on the extensions on google chrome and delete it
thank you thank you much :0)
So it's better to have a new look!
Thaks a lot
This threat is now spreading on Facebook like wildfire. Read more at http://www.onlinethreatalerts.com/article/2013/3/…
But how do you get rid of it? it keeps coming back
Userstyles.org…
That is all 🙂
It would be fairly easy to do this for free, by using eg the Greasemonkey plugin on Firefox, to filter & alter the CSS on the fly.
i pressed on the black facebook and now my facebook is acting up,
sending me those 'security checks' every 2 seconds,
and posting pictures on my wall saying 'i just got facebook black'
does anyone know what i should do?
It's so sad how many people I watch that fall for this crap daily… Even after I post warnings about it….Un-fricking believable.
Good thing red facebook