Avoiding social media scams requires reading comprehension
Posted by: Jon Ben-Mayor on 09/05/2013 06:30 PM
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Norton posted a link on their Facebook page that warned users NOT to fall for that common social network scam or hoax, you know the one that asks you to type in the number '1' and see what happens to the photo?
Unfortunately another common thing tends to happen; people do not fully read or comprehend what has been posted and blindly follow the herd into clicking, or as in this example typing the number '1' to have the picture change. Which of course it will not since it is a static photo. There is an underlying purpose for the scam which will be touched upon shortly.
Norton is warning about the scam and people are typing in the number '1' in the comment section of the very warning that is trying to save them from lining the pocket of the page for hire.....This is also how malware laden emails can be perpetuated by people who just are not paying attention to the content of what they are looking at, or worse just blindly clicking links and attachments.
Marian Merritt, who writes the blog "Ask Marian" for the Norton Community, wonders why anyone would post these messages in the first place, when all that happens is people are disappointed or fooled?
Photo from Ask Marian
The fans of this page have monetary value. That’s right, those 30,000 “fans” of this page are worth something to advertisers. And the price is pretty low, only $5. If you are ever irritated by the low-quality stuff being advertised to you in your social network, maybe you only have yourself to blame.
One final thought: when you see posts like this pop up in your news feed, don't click "like". Report it as spam and help end this scammy stuff.
Unfortunately another common thing tends to happen; people do not fully read or comprehend what has been posted and blindly follow the herd into clicking, or as in this example typing the number '1' to have the picture change. Which of course it will not since it is a static photo. There is an underlying purpose for the scam which will be touched upon shortly.
Norton is warning about the scam and people are typing in the number '1' in the comment section of the very warning that is trying to save them from lining the pocket of the page for hire.....This is also how malware laden emails can be perpetuated by people who just are not paying attention to the content of what they are looking at, or worse just blindly clicking links and attachments.
Marian Merritt, who writes the blog "Ask Marian" for the Norton Community, wonders why anyone would post these messages in the first place, when all that happens is people are disappointed or fooled?
The fans of this page have monetary value. That’s right, those 30,000 “fans” of this page are worth something to advertisers. And the price is pretty low, only $5. If you are ever irritated by the low-quality stuff being advertised to you in your social network, maybe you only have yourself to blame.
One final thought: when you see posts like this pop up in your news feed, don't click "like". Report it as spam and help end this scammy stuff.
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