No matter how hard the Facebook Security team tries, they cannot put an end to these ever spreading scams on the social network. The fact is that Facebook
hasn’t really figured out the way to tackle these scammers yet.
However, they do manage to delete these scams once they are reported,
but that won’t stop scammers from creating new ones.
While I was on Facebook today, I noticed a post shared by a friend of mine stating that he won a “free Facebook T-shirt”. It took me no time to identify it as a scam, and it was confirmed when I noticed a link to a bogus webpage attached to the post.
The new scam message titled – “WOW!! Got a free Facebook T-SHIRT :)). Unpacking it now. Get it here : [link]” leads to a fake page denoting that Facebook is celebrating its seventh birthday, and as a part of the big celebration, it is giving away 1.9 million official t-shirts for free.
However, in order to claim the gift, you will have to go through a set of hurdles. The fake page asks you to verify that you are a Facebook user. Things are starting to get tricky now. On the verification page, you are asked to open the Facebook Mobile page, and copy-paste the unique and personalized email, which is actually used to post status updates or send photos and video to your profile.
The personalized email id is different from all users. Not every Facebook user is aware of this feature, but that’s right, sharing this email id with others might cost you a fortune, since this can be used to update your Facebook profile even without logging in to your account. And this is what the scammer is exactly looking for. The scammer requires you to enter the unique email id and submit it.
Here’s what the email id can do -
I suggest you to avoid clicking on the link or complete the verification process. If you weren’t aware of this scam and have mistakenly completed the verification process by entering the personalized email id, then do not panic. You can delete the id and get a new one. To do so, go to the Facebook Mobile page and click on Find out more. A pop-up box should open as shown in the screenshot below -
Now, click on the refresh your upload emaillink and click the Resetbutton. You will be shown your new email id, and make sure that you keep it a secret.
While I was on Facebook today, I noticed a post shared by a friend of mine stating that he won a “free Facebook T-shirt”. It took me no time to identify it as a scam, and it was confirmed when I noticed a link to a bogus webpage attached to the post.
The new scam message titled – “WOW!! Got a free Facebook T-SHIRT :)). Unpacking it now. Get it here : [link]” leads to a fake page denoting that Facebook is celebrating its seventh birthday, and as a part of the big celebration, it is giving away 1.9 million official t-shirts for free.
However, in order to claim the gift, you will have to go through a set of hurdles. The fake page asks you to verify that you are a Facebook user. Things are starting to get tricky now. On the verification page, you are asked to open the Facebook Mobile page, and copy-paste the unique and personalized email, which is actually used to post status updates or send photos and video to your profile.
The personalized email id is different from all users. Not every Facebook user is aware of this feature, but that’s right, sharing this email id with others might cost you a fortune, since this can be used to update your Facebook profile even without logging in to your account. And this is what the scammer is exactly looking for. The scammer requires you to enter the unique email id and submit it.
Here’s what the email id can do -
- The email subject will be used as the caption of your photo or video if your email contains photo or video.
- The email subject will be used as your updated status if your email contains no photo or video.
I suggest you to avoid clicking on the link or complete the verification process. If you weren’t aware of this scam and have mistakenly completed the verification process by entering the personalized email id, then do not panic. You can delete the id and get a new one. To do so, go to the Facebook Mobile page and click on Find out more. A pop-up box should open as shown in the screenshot below -
Now, click on the refresh your upload emaillink and click the Resetbutton. You will be shown your new email id, and make sure that you keep it a secret.
