Facebook button punchers, beware ‘Dislike’ scam

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The Internet may be too rosy a place for some as Facebook’s “Like” button pops up everywhere.

But the viral clamor surrounding a “Dislike” button gave some Facebook users a real reason to be bummed out Monday: It’s a scam.

So reports British security firm Sophos. It says to watch out for posts on Facebook that say: “I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!”

A link then sends people to a fake Facebook application that does not download a “Dislike” button, just continues to spread.

‘If you do give the app permission to run, it silently updates your Facebook status to promote the link that tricked you in the first place, thus spreading the message virally to your Facebook friends and online contacts,’ a Sophos researcher wrote in a blog post.

The “Dislike” button is just one of the scams propagating on Facebook, piggybacking on fleeting pop-culture obsessions.

Facebook is working to block and remove this and other applications “that claim to provide dislike functionality and inadvertently update people’s statuses,” company spokesman Fred Wolens said.

“It’s important to keep in mind that there is no official dislike button. Also, don’t click on strange links, even if they are from friends, and notify the person and report the link if you see something suspicious,” he said.

For more information on how to protect your data on Facebook, you can check out the Facebook Security Page.

If you installed the fake app, don’t despair. Just click on the account button, then application settings and disable it. You can also delete the application’s posts to your Facebook wall.

-- Jessica Guynn