Facebook scam - Like Farming

We've all seen them….. the Facebook posts asking us to ‘Like’ a story about a bully who stood up for himself - or a brother who wants ‘Likes’ so his Down Syndrome sister will know she’s beautiful - or an inspirational quote asking you to ‘Like’ if you want world peace.  How about Apple has found a pile of iPhones in the back of a factory and if you Like that particular ‘Apple’ Page you’ll get one!  Or click on this photo, comment within 10 seconds and watch what happens!  Who wouldn't ‘Like’ those posts?   Actually, none of us should be ‘Liking’ them! 

All those posts are just a few of the many I've seen my friends Like in the past month.

‘Like Farming’ is a Facebook scam that has been around for a few years, but lately it seems to be seeing a resurgence – with my friends anyway.

How does this scam work?

• A Facebook Page is created
• Scam posts are created – something tragic or inspirational (usually using stolen photos) asking you to Like, Comment or Share the post, or page
• The Page creators share their posts among Facebook users with high profiles, which means the posts gradually work their way around the world via Facebook
• People start liking, commenting and sharing

It doesn't take long before those posts are being Liked all over the world and that Page is getting quite a bit of exposure, because as you know, the more Likes, Shares and Comments a Page gets, the higher its ranking with Facebook and the more often its posts will appear in News Feeds.

That Facebook Page is then sold for big money, to a buyer who now has a ready-made list of potential clients.  The Page is altered to suit the new owner – a new About, new cover photo - and that new owner then starts creating their scam posts, and the cycle starts again.

How do you know if a post is a scam?  One giveaway is the number of Likes – when I see a post has 200,000 or so Likes I figure it doesn't need mine!  If you’re not sure if it’s a scam try copying a chunk of the post into Google and see what comes up, or go to the Scam Watch page on www.facecrooks.com and you’ll find a list of the latest scams.  

Next time you're about to automatically 'Like' a post or a page - STOP and think - what are you really Liking?

Free Stuff Friday - Pocket

Pocket is celebrating its first anniversary today.  If you haven’t discovered Pocket yet you are really missing something wonderful. 

Pocket is a web site and a free app for your iPad, iPhone, Mac, and Android phone or tablet that allows you to save articles or pages that you find on the web.  Rather than just bookmarking or adding a site to your favourites list in your browser, you add the entire article to Pocket.  Then, when you have time you can read it later.  It also syncs across all your devices, so you can catch up on reading your articles whenever or wherever you are.

I have the Pocket extension for Google Chrome installed on my computer (get it at the Chrome web store) and the bookmarklet for Chrome on my iPad, so that if I find an article I want to keep I just click the button on the Chrome toolbar and it is added to Pocket.  You can also get the bookmarklet for Safari and Firefox.  Alternatively, you can just copy a URL and when you then go to Pocket you click on a link at the bottom of the page to save that clipping.

I read Pocket on my iPad and for most pages it’s not the same format as on the webpage – Pocket changes it to a much easier to read format, no ads, no extra stuff – just like reading a magazine article.  Once read I can delete it, or, if I want to keep it for future reference I can send it to Evernote.  If there’s an article I think one of my friends would like I can email it to them, or share it on Facebook or Twitter, right from a link on the article in Pocket.  There’s also a link to go back to the original article – especially useful if you want to read more on that site.

Since I started using Pocket I've found it so much easier to keep up with all the digital information I'm bombarded with each day.  Whenever I find an article I want to read, on Facebook, an email newsletter, the web, I just add it to Pocket and then I can forget about it until I have the time to really read it.

Click here to go to the Pocket page where you’ll find links to get Pocket for all your devices.  The page that this link takes you to will change depending on which browser you open it in – it changes to display the correct bookmarklet or app for that browser – how clever is that!

Data never sleeps

Every minute of every day....

204,166,667 email messages are sent

Google processes over 2,000,000 search enquiries

571 new websites are created



There are more interesting facts on this great Infographic from Domo