Facebook recently intimated that it may be working on a “Dislike” button of sorts, for use for everything from expressing solidarity when someone posts a news story in disgust, to disagreeing with a friend’s fashion choice in a selfie (admittedly, the latter is rather cruel—but you know it’s gonna happen. Prepare your vulnerable teens now).
And one wonders what will happen when Dislike makes it into, say, Donald Trump’s hands—or into the claws of one’s constantly opinionated aunt who seems to have never gotten the empathy gene judging from that last birthday card noting that a little Oil of Olay wouldn’t go awry now that one is no longer a “spring chicken”… BUT, I digress.
Because of the interest around going negative on the social network, scam artists have predictably launched a series of spam campaigns targeting those who would love love LOVE to be early adopters of the Dislike button (read: just about everyone).
The luring email, as reported by Sophos Security, is pretty straightforward. It says: “Get newly introduced facebook dislike button on your profile. Dislike button is invite only feature.”
The lack of capitalization and articles should of course be a dead giveaway that all is not as it seems. But should that not flag the invite as bogus, the next steps should: Before getting one’s hands on this supposed Dislike button, it requires that you share the link with friends, and send it to groups that you belong to.
“The scam unfolds like many ‘you know you want this’ tricks we've written about before, on Facebook and on other social networks,” Sophos researcher Paul Ducklin said in a posting. “That's the main way you know that this, or any other Facebook link of this sort, is crooked, and that you should stay away: you can't possibly recommend something without knowing what it is.”
Once a victim goes through with the re-posting, they will be redirected to sites asking users to sign up and give away personal information, via a survey or to participate in a get-rich-quick scheme.
“Typically, the crooks will have signed up as affiliates for the surveys or software downloads you're being offered, and will be paid a small fee if you sign up,” Ducklin explained. “That's how they make their money.”
So…dislike on the fake Dislike button. But triple-like (another feature that would be handy and a lot more joyful, Mark Zuckerberg) on the possibility of the native real thing.