When Facebook makes a big change, a good portion of the user base freaks out for a little while. This has happened for years and if I thought myself a betting man, I’d bet that Facebook users will remain resistant to change until Facebook crumbles or the world ends, whichever comes first.
The change over to the Timeline has been no different, and many users have expressed their disapproval for various reasons. A recent survey showed that many users (up to 88%) are concerned about their privacy with the new Timeline, and another survey suggested that an overwhelming percentage of comments surrounding the Timeline on Facebook have been negative.
Armed with that information, it should come as no surprise that scammers are still using that dissatisfaction to prey on users, offering them the chance to rid themselves of the Facebook Timeline once and for all. These scams aren’t new in general, but Sophos’ Naked Security blog has identified a new one making the rounds.
With this scam, users will receive a message asking if they “wanna get rid of Facebook Timeline?” It goes on to say that “it is very easy to accomplish this,” and will prompt the user to install an “addon” to eliminate the “Time Line.”
Sophos says that clicking on the provided link will direct you to a dubious Turkish website created just a few days ago. That site asks unhappy Timeline users to install a Firefox or Chrome extension in order to extricate the Timeline from their Facebook accounts. Long story short, you probably should’t click install.
Scammers began targeting Timeline users soon after it became available. Some users quickly opted to try out the new feature and were hit with a wave of buyer’s remorse. Many Facebook pages popped up with titles like “Deactivate Facebook Timeline Now!” and “Deactivate your FB Timeline.” They prompted users to click multiple “likes” and invite all of their friends to do it too. Of course, the end result of all of this was just spamming the hell out of your connections. Although some of the pages looked a bit less-than-legit, thousands of Facebook users participated.