Comment #177 to see if you’ve been hacked? It’s a hoax.

Rumours are spreading around on social network Facebook that implores readers to type “#177” to see if their Facebook account has been “hacked”.

According to the rumours, after you type #177 into the comments, if a green bar appears instead of the comment, it means your account has been hacked. However if the comment #177 remains then your account is fine.

Various versions have been spreading rapidly around Facebook, including the below variants –

Comment #177 and if that green line shows up you’ve been hacked before!? tag friends see if they have

Comment #177 to see if you have been hacked

Let’s see who hacked
Type #177 if you get a green line you’re hacked

However Facebook users need not worry as this is certainly not a sign whatsoever that your Facebook account has been hacked. Needless to say, having a green bar appear when you type something into the Facebook comments section and that apparently meaning you’ve somehow been hacked makes literally no sense whatsoever.

The rumours fail to ask the important questions, such as how does Facebook know the account has been compromised? (Criminals certainly don’t let Facebook know when they compromise specific accounts!) Also, if Facebook could work out which accounts have been compromised, then why would they alert users to their accounts being “hacked” in such an ambiguous and unintuitive way?

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In reality this appears to be some kind of ‘in joke’ for those that have figured out that this is actually just a silly hoax. The green bars that many users have posted appear just to be images they have saved and attached to their comments in a bid to fool their more uninformed Facebook brethren.

So now you can be in on the joke!

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